Number 9
by Nattle the Nettle
Summary: ON HIATUS GotenxBra and TrunksxPan on side. Bra is pregnant with Goten's child. Paris is too. What happens when Bra finds out? Chapter 11 up.
1. Chapter 1

_Ok, first I gotta say I've read like a thousand stories about Bra and Goten and I'm not sure about the age gap, sorry. Any who these are my ages:_

_Bra: 23_

_Goten: 31_

_Trunks: 32_

_Pan:22_

_Next is that most of this is completely OCC because I haven't watched DBZ for ages sob sob tragedy etc and I never usually watch GT anyway. But whatever_

_Nuf luff_

_Nattle (Spandex spider)_

_Enjoy…_

- - - - -

1 - Today and the Next Day….

Bra heaved a huge sigh. She clutched her slightly rotund stomach as she navigated around Goten's small, cluttered living room. 'Why am I here?' she asked herself for the tenth time. She had received a phone call from Goten a little over an hour ago, and she was still waiting for him. Bra sighed again.

"Hey you!" She said, affectionately poking her stomach, "where's daddy huh?"

Bra was two months pregnant with Goten's baby, and she was loving every minute of it, except for the morning sickness and weird mood swings. Goten had taken the news really well too, especially as the baby was an accident, and he was looking forward to being a daddy. 'Yep,' Bra thought constantly, 'life could not get any better if it tried.'

Bra heard a key in the lock and then the wait was over. The love of her life was home.

"Hey!" She grinned, walking over to him to give him a kiss.

"Hi Bra," Goten smiled, his expression guilty.

"What's happened then?" Bra asked, looking curiously at his expression, "what was that call all about?"

What was he supposed to say to that then? 'Yeah, everything's fine, oh yeah, before I forget, Paris rang me today and told me she was three months pregnant, isn't that great news?' Well, of course, because this was the kind of thing that happened every day. Goten closed his eyes, hoping that when he opened them he'd find himself in his bed (preferably with Bra) and it had all been just a terrible nightmare. Goten cautiously opened one eye and found himself looking into Bra's aquamarine coloured eyes. He laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.

"Bra…" Goten started and struggled, "this is going to be a huge shock. Erm, you might want to sit down."

Bra moved slowly towards the couch, not taking her eyes off him. She felt butterflies in her stomach. Sitting down, she nodded at him, indicating that he could continue.

"Oh God, Bra, you're really going to hate me. Jeez, I hate myself. This is such a fuck up."

"Goten," Bra said in a no nonsense voice, "I'm not going to hate you. Now, tell me what happened."

"Bra, I," He faltered and closed his eyes. "Bra," He tried again, "Paris is pregnant with my baby and she said she's keeping it. Apparently she doesn't know about you and me."

Bra almost laughed as her system went into shock. Her mind raced to try to process the information. She stared blankly at him.

"Bra, please say something," Goten pleaded.

Finally, her mind started working again. 'How perfect,' she thought, 'he's been cheating on me the whole time, hasn't he? In a second he's gonna tell me he wants to split up with me.' She always jumped to the worst conclusions when she was in shock.

"How many months?" She asked her voice barely audible. She was buying time because she didn't want to hear the break up.

"She told me three; she got pregnant just before we split up by the looks of it."

"You're not joking, then," Bra said, thinking how stupid that sounded. What kind of sick twisted bastard would joke about something like that?

Goten shook his head. He didn't want to see her like this, hurt. He noticed her pale slightly when he confirmed that it wasn't a joke.

Bra fell silent as she looked back on their short relationship. She had been so sure that he loved her back. 'What if,' she found herself thinking, 'this baby thing is just their way of getting rid of me?' It was stupid but Bra was completely paranoid. She thought back to the times when he'd told her about Paris wanting to get back together with him – had _he_ been longing to get back with her? Maybe he had only slept with Bra as a rebound situation type thing, and pregnancy was just one of the casualties along the way.

Goten had been watching her worriedly during her silence. He noticed the tiny tremors go through her as she held back sobs. He felt a tightness in his chest as she hunched over slightly in pain.

"Goten, I, I don't know what to say to you." She whispered brokenly. "I don't even know what I'm going to _do_ with myself. How could this happen?"

Goten looked at her despairingly. "Please don't hate me Bra, it was beyond my control. I didn't want this to happen."

"Beyond your- BEYOND YOUR CONTROL?!" Bra exploded, forgetting her hurt for a minute. "You could have got protection, you could have _thought, _you could have done anything god dammit. How could I think you were different to any other man? You're all the same; your fucking _brains_ are in your trousers! How could you do this to me?" She finished more quietly as her hurt came back. Bra started to sob.

She breathed in and stood up shakily and started making her way over to the door. "And for fuck's sake Goten, don't you dare follow me."

"Let me take you home Bra, to make sure you're ok." Goten said, feeling helpless.

"Oh no you don't. If you're that worried about me let me tell you that with the mood I'm in if anyone so much as comes within a metre's radius of me be it the Pope or even Jesus Christ himself, I swear I will tear them to pieces. So don't you even think of coming near me."

Bra wrenched the flat door open and left, slamming it shut behind her. Goten waited until he heard her car start up then got up to follow her. He was scared that she might crash her car in her anger or try to kill herself. He didn't know how upset she was. She did get home ok, but when she got to her room she cried like a baby. Huge sobs racked her body and it was then that Goten felt like the biggest asshole in the world.

- - - - -

After an hour of straight crying, Bra had calmed down enough to call her best friend, Pan. Pan always heard everything first, be it a crush, a death or a pregnancy. Pan knew that something bad had happened because had her 'brave' voice on so she dropped everything to be there for her friend. You see, Pan had this schizophrenic personality: she had a complete motor mouth front, but she could be serious whenever she had to. This scared people off, because she seemed so unsympathetic and untrustworthy, (like you couldn't tell her anything because it would just end up as gossip), but Bra liked that about her; no one would ever think to question Pan about Bra's personal life.

When Pan got to Capsule Corp. she avoided Bra's parents by flying straight up to Bra's bedroom. She tapped on the window and Bra got up to open it for her.

"Thanks for coming Pan; I hope I didn't make you miss anything." Bra said in a small voice.

Pan brushed her apology aside. "I'm not missing anything," she assured her. "Now, what's happened Bra?"

Once again, Bra took in a deep breath, trying to hold back tears. "Pan, Paris is pregnant with Goten's baby."

"Oh Bra," Pan said hugging her friend. Bra clung to her and sobbed again. "That stupid scumbag." Pan rubbed her friend's back comfortingly as she cried. Pan couldn't really think of anything to say, it wasn't guaranteed that everything would go back to normal, and she couldn't be sure that everything would be ok.

"Don't cry Bra, he's a jerk if he did that to you. Still, at least he had the decency to tell you. Imagine if he hadn't told you until after the baby?"

"Pan, you're not helping," Bra groaned, still crying. "What am I going to do?"

"Bra, everyone's going to help you through this. I know it doesn't seem like it now but you _will _get through this. And Goten will help too, he's not going to piss off, he's not like that."

"But Pan it hurts so much." Bra told her. "I feel like I'm falling apart."

"I know, I know," Pan sighed, feeling so sorry for her friend. "You won't feel like this forever. You'll cope, I know you will."

Bra fell silent and hugged her best friend tighter. She had a feeling that it would last forever; she had loved Goten with all her heart. She _still _loved Goten with all her heart. Surprisingly she found herself wondering how Paris felt about all this. She wondered whether Paris loved Goten like she did. 'No,' she decided firmly, 'Paris was a cold, unfeeling person that got her kicks out of hurting others.'

"Don't leave me tonight Pan," Bra begged desperately. "I don't know if I would be able to cope."

"I'm not going anywhere," she promised. "I just have to go home and get my stuff. You try to sleep, you look really exhausted and you know its not good for the baby if you tire yourself out."

Bra nodded automatically and her friend left her alone to get dressed and went to ask Bra's parents whether she could stay over. When Pan left Bra got up and started changing into her pyjamas. She caught sight of herself in the mirror. Her eyes were swollen from crying. She had never felt so repulsive in her life. No man would want her now that she was having a child. Not that she really wanted anyone other than Goten, but she badly wanted to feel, well, wanted. She felt more tears fall but she continued to change regardless and climbed into bed where she could cry quietly into her pillow.

- - - - -

Pan had found Bulma in the lab. Bulma was working on more capsules and seemed pretty absorbed in her work. Pan coughed lightly to get the woman's attention.

"Hi Pan," Bulma said, slightly surprised that she was there.

"Hi Bulma," Pan said, "Can I talk to you?"

"Erm… sure," Bulma said, confused, "what's up?"

"I shouldn't be telling this, but you ought to know. Bra and Goten split up today. Paris, Goten's ex girlfriend, got pregnant too."

"Oh dear, poor Bra," Bulma said, her eyes wide. "Where is she?"

"In her room, sleeping." Pan told her.

"Oh dear," Bulma said again, "I feel so bad. I thought she looked upset, but I didn't want to mention it. She was so happy this morning."

"God Bulma, what do you say to someone when the love of their life gets his ex girlfriend pregnant? I had no idea what to say and she was so upset," Pan said, rubbing her forehead.

"I know, but you managed to get her to sleep, which is more than I would have been able to do. Don't beat yourself up Pan. Thank God she has such a good friend." Bulma sighed.

Pan smiled slightly. "Don't, you're embarrassing me," she joked feebly.

Bulma smiled back. "I suppose she'll tell Vegeta and me tomorrow. I feel so useless. I just want to go up there now and be there for her. I hate to think of her putting up with it by herself."

"Well, she always has me," Pan told Bulma. "I just wanted to check if it was ok, but, can I stay over? Bra asked me to."

"Of course you can Pan, you know you're always welcome here. Just ignore Vegeta, he doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Thank you," Pan smiled.

"Ok? You can stay in the bedroom next door to Bra's, she'll know where you are if she wakes up."

"Cool, thanks Bulma;" Pan thanked her again, "I'm going home to get my stuff. I'll be back in about an hour."

- - - - -

Pan had driven home as quickly as she could. Strangely, no one was in, so she had scribbled a note telling her parents where she was and what time she should be back. She packed her bags hastily and was back in the car within minutes. She didn't want to leave Bra by herself for too long. She had never seen Bra so low in the whole twenty two years she had known her, so she wasn't sure whether she was at suicidal risk or not.

When pan got back she went to check on Bra. Her friend was clutching an old teddy bear and was sleeping. Pan noticed that she had been crying again. Her heart went out to her friend. She didn't deserve to suffer like that. Suddenly Pan got a huge urge to kill Goten. In fact, she gladly would have done if it was her business, but it wasn't, so she didn't. Pan squeezed bra's hand quickly before she went to her own room to sleep.

It had gotten quite late but Pan wasn't tired. Her mind was on her best friend, her uncle and her unborn cousin. She wondered whether Bra would let Goten see the baby after it was born. She wondered what would happen when Vegeta found out that Goten had gotten not only his princess pregnant, but another woman. Pan thought of Chichi. In any other situation, the woman would love to have two more grandchildren, but Pan got the feeling that she wouldn't be so happy about the older grandchild. Finally though, it must have been a couple of hours later, Pan felt her eyes close and she drifted into a light sleep.

- - - - -

Bra had not slept well. She had drifted in and out of sleep all night, but now she was fully awake, and it was only six o'clock. She had been tormenting herself with thoughts of Goten and was starting to feel sick. Suddenly, her sickness reached a peak and she had to get up and run to the bathroom. 'Of course I'm feeling sick,' she thought as she threw up, 'it's morning sickness.' When she'd finished she stood up shakily and went over to the sink to wash her face and brush her teeth.

"Good morning Bra?" Trunks asked from the bathroom doorway.

"Hardly," she replied flatly.

"What's up?"

"Stupid morning sickness. You think it's nice having to throw up?" Bra asked, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"No, but you've been throwing up every morning and you've looked better than this," he commented, indicating her tear streaked face.

"I've been having stupid mood swings." Bra lied, and to her horror her eyes welled up with tears. She stood paralysed for a second, and then she slowly sank down onto the floor and wept. Poor Trunks didn't know what to do.

"I'll go and get mum," Trunks said, stricken.

"No, don't, I'm fine," Bra choked. "It's just hormones."

"Are you sure?" Trunks asked uncertainly.

"Yes, now help me up." Bra said. Trunks offered her his hand. She swayed as she stood, still a bit surprised by her break down. "Oh God, I feel sick."

Trunks quickly guided her to the toilet and she threw up some more. He rubbed her back and held her hair back; reminding her of the first time she got morning sickness when she was staying over at Goten's flat. He had done exactly the same thing. Bra finally ran out of things to throw up and Trunks picked her up.

"I'll carry to your room, you need to sleep more."

"Thanks Trunks," Bra said, genuinely grateful.

He left her in her room and she curled up under her duvet, all her loneliness and hurt returning to her. She felt guilty about lying to him when she had told Pan already. She didn't blame herself too much though; her family was so unsympathetic. Bulma was quite an airhead and got over things quickly and usually said all the wrong things, and her dad and brother would just go out and kill Goten.

- - - - -

Pan had woken up too. She had been crash sleeping for most of the night and had woken up when she heard Bra run to the bathroom. She was going to go to her friend but Trunks had beaten her to it. She had eavesdropped on their conversation and had been disappointed when Bra put on a brave face instead of telling her brother what had happened. When Bra started weeping, Pan was going to go to her, but Trunks had handled it extremely well. Pan waited until Trunks had left Bra alone before going to check on her. She knocked softly on the door and let herself in.

"Morning Bra," Pan said. "How are you feeling?"

"Awful, I just threw up and had a break down." Bra moaned.

"Poor you," Pan said sympathetically, "you really don't deserve this."

Pan hugged her friend tightly and Bra clung to her again. "Stop it," Bra whispered, "You're going to set me off again."

"Sorry," Pan apologised, releasing her.

"What am I going to do?" Bra said mournfully. "I'm already sick of hurting. Literally."

"Just sleep it off, I get the feeling that you didn't sleep last night." Pan suggested.

"That'll be about right," Bra said. "Thanks Pan, for everything, I don't know what I'd do without you." Bra closed her eyes and drifted off into a doze. Pan smiled at her and left her to snooze.

- - - - -

Pan walked into the kitchen and saw that Trunks was still eating his breakfast.

"Good morning poop head," Pan greeted with all the maturity of a grown woman.

"Hi Panny, I didn't know you were here," Trunks replied.

"Yeah, I got here quite late and I was with Bra most of the time."

"So you know what's wrong with her?" He asked, trying to keep his voice impassive, "Or is that classified?"

"Of course I know what it is, and no, it's not classified. She's just having mood swings." Pan felt like a lying monster, she hated keeping things to herself.

"Oh, Ok, she just looked so upset this morning I wondered whether she was covering something up…" Trunks watched Pan's expression carefully.

"Like what?" Pan asked. She was a brilliant actress.

"I dunno," Trunks shrugged, "I suppose she'll be ok by lunch time."

"Probably," Pan said.

"So…do you feel like a spar with me? I know it's early but it's good training." Trunks asked, finally letting her off the hook about Bra.

"Yeah! When am I not up for a spar?" Pan answered eagerly. "I'll have to borrow a T-shirt though; I don't want to mess up my nice one."

"That's fine, you can borrow one of mine," Trunks told her. "Get yourself some breakfast and I'll find you a t shirt."

Trunks left Pan alone in the kitchen while he went to get the t shirt. Pan helped herself to everything in the fridge and most of what was in the cupboards. When Trunks returned he stared incredulously at the kitchen.

"Mum, dad and Bra are going to be after your blood, how could you eat everything?"

"I got hungry," Pan replied defensively. "It's not my fault that I inherited my Grandpa's appetite."

"You tell that to my parents. I guess you're just lucky they like you, otherwise you'd be our dinner."

Pan shuddered. "Oops. Well, I'm gonna go and get changed. I'll be back in a second."

"Ok, the t shirt's in your room and I'll be warming up in the GR."

Pan got dressed quickly and did her best to tame her hair. Her hair was constantly a bother. It stuck up like her dad and granddad's hair and refused to be combed. 'Oh well,' she finally shrugged, giving up, 'Trunks has seen worse.' Pan pulled on her track pants and Trunks's overly large T shirt. It hung down to her knees but she didn't care, as long as she wasn't getting her nice t shirt dirty. Pan finally put on her fighting boots (she carried them with her everywhere) and went to check on Bra again.

Bra was sleeping deeply. Pan knew she was dreaming of Goten. Her face was strained and she mumbled 'Go' once. Pan sighed sadly as her friend whimpered in her sleep. It was unhealthy for a pregnant woman to get stressed, it led to all sorts of complications, fainting being one of them. Things like that could harm the baby too. Pan closed Bra's bedroom door again and wandered off to find Trunks.

- - - - -

Trunks was warming up at 40 times earth's gravity. Pan watched him with an amused smirk on her face. She burst out laughing at him, it didn't look like he knew what he was doing.

"I hope you know what you're doing when you fight properly." Pan smirked.

Trunks crossed his arms, making him look like his father. "Of course I know what I'm doing. If it wasn't for me, well, future me, then you wouldn't exist."

"Oo-er, I'm shaking, how could I ever have thought of agreeing to this fight?" Pan said melodramatically.

"Hmm, someone's arrogant all of a sudden. Can that someone withstand, say, 150 times earth's gravity?"

"Course," Pan replied cockily as Trunks turned up the gravity. She faltered slightly as gravity pulled down on her arms and legs, but she flew up to face Trunks regardless. She could tell he was impressed, he knew that she hardly ever used the GR.

"You ready?" He asked, getting into a defensive crouch.

"Never readier," she replied, taking up an offensive stance.

"Good," Trunks said, and he promptly flashed in front of her and kicked her to the floor.

'Uuf,' Pan thought, 'how embarrassing.' She got up and flashed behind him and aimed a punch at his head. It ended up as a rather floppy slap.

"What was that?" Trunks asked confusedly, as he turned around to face her, "did you

just _slap_ me?"

"Nope," Pan grinned and seized her opportunity, punching him in the nose, hard. Trunks fell back slightly, but stopped himself. Pan shot five ki blasts at him, one after the other. He deflected them easily.

"Come on Pan, I thought you'd be a challenge!"

"I'm just getting started," Pan replied.

"Good, 'cos you had me worried for a second," Trunks said, before he flew towards her and kicked her squarely in the stomach. She doubled up as saliva flew out of her mouth. She had entered her fight mode. Her eyes flashed aqua briefly as she flew straight at Trunks and head butted him in the stomach, sending him flying. He had noticed the quick flash of aqua but had dismissed it as a trick of the light. He didn't know whether women could turn super saiyan.

He regained his fighting stance and flashed towards her. She had anticipated his move and grabbed his leg as he tried to kick her. Grinning evilly she spun him around a couple of times then released his legs. As he went flying backwards again she used 'masenko' to hit him. As the smoke from the ki cleared, Pan saw that Trunks was surprised.

"I didn't know you could do Masenko," he said.

"My dad taught me," Pan smiled, "It's a nice trick isn't it?"

"Lovely," Trunks agreed, before he shot a ball of ki at Pan. She dodged it easily and flashed in front of him.

"Why don't you turn super saiyan?"

"Because it wouldn't be fair," He replied, knowing what would happen.

"Fine, if you won't I will," she grinned at him and turned super saiyan.

"Oh no, dear goodness, Panny the little girlie can turn super saiyan," Trunks gasped sarcastically. "Great performance but you made it obvious with your question."

"Oh go on then," Pan snapped, "spoil my surprise. You better not tell any one. I like surprising people."

"Don't worry, you're secret's safe with me."

"Oh Trunks, you don't know what that means to me." Pan said, putting her hand on his chest and leaning towards him, as if to kiss him. This confused to Trunks but he had always had a small crush on Pan so he obliged. As he leaned towards her, she grabbed him and flung him down to the floor with force.

Trunks was so humiliated. He lay on the floor groaning for a bit and eventually Pan flew down to check on him. She nudged him with her foot. Trunks grabbed her foot and slammed her down as she did so.

"Ha! Now we're even." He snickered.

"You dirty tramp!" Pan said furiously. Both of them made no attempt to get up.

"Well, I couldn't live with the fact that I got floored by a girl and didn't get her back, could I?"

"Oh yeah, Prince Vegeta in there would blow a gasket." Pan laughed.

"Hey, leave my dad alone," Trunks said indignantly.

"You're dad won't leave my dad or granddad alone, why can't I make remarks about him?"

"Because you're a third class mongrel. His words not mine."

"Ooh, no offence taken, I guess that means that you being floored is even more embarrassing. Royalty getting floored by a mongrel! And that mongrel is a girl!"

"Rub it in some more Panny, after I promised to keep your secret."

"Ok, I'm sorry Prince Trunks."

"That's ok mongrel," Trunks replied. They both grinned at each other.

Trunks heaved himself to his feet and helped Pan up. Pan smiled at him and rubbed her arm unconsciously. She felt a sharp pain in her arm as she ran her hand over a wound.

"Wow. How did that happen?" She asked.

"It's quite deep, it was probably one of those ki blasts, we'll assume I did it then."

"How could you?" Pan cried out jokily as she inspected her arm. "Some band aid will fix this."

"Here, I'll get you some."

Trunks lead her to the first aid room which was located oh so conveniently next to the GR. He mopped away the blood and tenderly stuck a band aid over the cut.

"Thank you, my knight in shining armour," Pan said in mock awe.

"You're welcome, I love helping out damsels in distress. Now, sorry Panny but I have to go to work, much as I'd love to spar some more with you. I need to stop off at Goten's first though; that's why I'm leaving so early."

"Ok Prince Trunks, I'll see you later, and for god's sake don' forget to take a shower."

"Yes mum," Trunks replied.

Pan rolled her eyes at him and he flew off to Goten's. She went back to her room to get clean clothes so she could have her shower.

- - - - -

Bra had woken up again. She felt a little better than she had before, but still felt pretty awful. She didn't feel much like doing anything so she lay in bed, feeling hollow inside. She rubbed her belly absentmindedly as she wondered briefly how Paris was coping. Now that she thought of it, Paris was carrying her baby's older brother or sister. Weird.

She wasn't sure how long she lay there but she finally summoned the energy to get out of bed, she padded over to the bedroom door, about to go and look for Pan when the door opened. Pan had chosen that moment to go and check on Bra again.

"Hey Bra," Pan said, surprised to see her friend up already, "you didn't sleep for long."

"Yeah," Bra agreed sleepily, "I couldn't really sleep with all this on my mind." She was speaking in her normal voice, so Pan counted it as process.

"Oh well, I'm sure you'll be ok with some food in your stomach." Pan said cheerfully.

"I'm not really hungry," Bra mumbled.

"Nonsense, of course you are," Pan said firmly. "Now, you go and run yourself a bath and I'll make breakfast." She pushed Bra bossily towards the bathroom. "It'll help you relax," she added.

Bra rolled her eyes in reply and started running her bath. Pan left her alone and went downstairs to find something that she hadn't eaten.

- - - - -

Pan had found a breakfast-type meal in the freezer. Ok, so usually eating an apple pie for breakfast was weird, but it was better than chicken nuggets or sweet corn. Pan stuck the apple pie in the oven and sat at the kitchen table waiting for Bra to come downstairs. When she did come downstairs, Pan almost had a heart attack. Bra usually wore designer clothes but today she was wearing a pair of navy track pants and a t shirt that Pan would never have guessed would be in her wardrobe.

"Bra! You're clothes!" She squeaked unwisely.

"What about them?" Bra narrowed her eyes at Pan.

"Nothing, they're just different to what you usually wear." Pan replied, quickly trying to make amends for her first comment.

"So? This is how you usually dress."

"Yeah, but I have no fashion sense." Pan admitted shamelessly.

"That's true," Bra replied, deciding not to take her argument any further.

Pan smiled at Bra and walked over to the oven to get the apple pie. She put it on a plate and gave it to Bra. Bra looked at it as if she had never seen an apple pie before.

"Why have you made apple pie for breakfast?" Bra asked slowly.

"I, erm, ate everything else." Pan blushed.

Bra felt laughter bubble up inside her and soon she was laughing. Pan stared wide eyed at her. For a depressed woman, Bra was sure taking things well. Or maybe she was just mad with grief. Pan put her money on the second option.

"Why don't you sit down and eat your breakfast?" Pan suggested worriedly.

Bra sat down, still laughing. Eventually she stopped and dug in. Pan watched on for a while before she spoke up.

"Bra, you need to tell your parents."

"No I don't," Bra replied quickly.

"They need to know Bra. I won't be here to help you all the time. I have to go to work."

"It's none of their business."

"Bra, I'm not trying to be horrible, and I'm not trying to take over your life but they have a right to know. They'll help you. Anyway, would you rather they found out from someone else?"

"Fine," Bra said reluctantly, "I'll tell them."

A silence fell upon the kitchen before Bra spoke up again. "Don't you ever get sick of looking after me? Last time I was bawling because I didn't want to tell Goten or my parents that I was pregnant, and now I'm crying to you again because I don't want to tell my parents that it's over between us."

"Of course I don't get sick of helping you; and this is nothing like last time. I'm really worried about you; it's a lot to handle in your condition."

"I'll live," Bra shrugged, before sighing sadly.

"Of course you will. You'll get over him and after that you'll be so busy with the baby you won't even have to _think _about him."

"Yeah, I suppose. It's just so humiliating. Only last month I was telling defending him saying that we were in love and now we've split up. Dad is gonna go into his 'I told you so' mode and mum's going to be hysterical and she never says the right thing."

"They'll be supportive." Pan insisted, "In the long run."

"Hm," Bra grunted disbelievingly. "That'll be the day."

- - - - -

Bra had woken her parents up and they were very curious as to why Bra was waking the up so early to talk. (Bulma was acting). Bulma suggested that they talked in the living room for more privacy. Now they were all seated rather uncomfortably in the living room staring at each other.

"So…what did you want to tell us?" Bulma asked.

"It's erm, about, er, me and Goten, Bra said steadily, not looking either of her parents in the eye, "and about Paris."

"Paris?" Vegeta asked.

"Goten's ex," Bulma explained.

"Yes," Bra paused, taking a deep breath, "well she's pregnant too. With Goten's baby."

"What?" Vegeta roared, standing up. "That dirty third class mongrel!"

"Vegeta, sit down. Bra, oh Bra, I'm so sorry. He's such a scumbag, he never deserved you."

Bra kept a brave face on. Vegeta growled to himself; he hated seeing his daughter hurt, despite how much he denied caring for her.

"Just give me the word princess and I'll kill him," he said, against his better judgement.

"No daddy," Bra shook her head, "you can't hurt him. I'm fine as I am now, I'm coping."

Bra looked utterly composed and unconcerned, Bulma noticed. She hated seeing her daughter keep her emotions to herself. She blamed Vegeta who had always told his children to never show their emotions, right from when they were babies. He frowned on crying, although he cried himself, to him it was a 'weakness'.

"Are you sure you're ok? It's big news to hear in your condition." Bulma asked worriedly.

"I'm fine mum," Bra wriggled uncomfortably, "honestly."

"Ok…I just don't want you to deal with this by yourself. I'm worried about you."

"Don't be," Bra replied, "if this is what happened then I don't need the stupid bastard."

"Language Bra," Bulma scolded automatically.

"I told you Bra, royalty such as yourself does not mix with the third class, like Kakkarot's brat." Vegeta scowled at his daughter, insinuating that she had bought this on herself.

"I know daddy, I'm sorry," Bra said miserably.

Vegeta shrugged with the side of his mouth, brushing her apology away.

"Ignore him Bra, anyone would be fooled; you seemed like such a wonderful couple."

"I know mum, I know." Bra smiled stiffly at her parents. "Don't worry about me ok? I'm going to hang out with Pan today; we both took the day off work."

"You can take off as much time as you need, ok sweetheart?" Bulma told her daughter kindly.

"And you stay away from Kakkarot's brat," Vegeta warned.

"I'll be _fine _daddy; I don't want to see him."

Vegeta grunted at her. Bra took this as his way of telling her they had no more questions for her – in other words, she could go.

"Vegeta, I'm worried about her." Bulma said, the moment Bra had closed the door behind her.

"You heard her woman," he scowled, "she doesn't need the brat."

"Oh please Vegeta," Bulma hissed, "did you really buy that? Do you think I would get over you in one day after hearing something like that?"

"No," Vegeta agreed sullenly, "but what do you propose we do? She's not going to come to us is she?"

"Well whose fault is that?" Bulma spat venomously.

"Yours," Vegeta smirked, "she's come crawling to me a lot more times than you would think."

"You little liar," Bulma growled dangerously.

"Think what you like woman," Vegeta said over his shoulder arrogantly as he got up to leave the room, "I know things about her that you wouldn't be able to handle hearing." He left the room, leaving Bulma gaping after him.

"How could she go to him over me?" Bulma asked herself out loud.

- - - - -

Goten's day had been as bad as Bra's. For starters, Trunks had paid him a visit in the morning, leading him to believe that Bra had told him. Goten had almost shat himself when he opened the door to Trunks. He needn't have worried though; Trunks only came to borrow a suit, seeing as all his were at the dry cleaners. He hardly mentioned Bra.

Secondly, almost immediately after Trunks had left, Paris had called. She wanted to go baby shopping with him. Goten, thinking it was the right thing to do, agreed, although he thought to himself that he'd rather eat a human flavoured ice cream with gherkin sauce on top than go.

Lastly, he had a visit to his parents' planned. Yep, he had all that on his plate. He had called in sick because he didn't think he'd be able to face work on top of all the other things planned. So, now he was stuck going out with a woman he didn't like, with a child he didn't particularly want, however horrible it sounded. Goten had decided, despite not really waning it, that he would be a good dad to the child, because it was the decent thing to do; after all, it wasn't the child's fault it's parents didn't get along.

Now, Goten was getting ready to leave. He had arranged to meet Paris at the entrance of West City Mall, located conveniently in West City, an hour's drive from his flat. Unfortunately for him, along the route was Capsule Corp, and he knew it would hurt him to go past. Despite this, he didn't take an alternate route, because he wanted to see if he could catch a glimpse of Bra, just to see how she was. He found his heart sink when he didn't see anyone at Capsule Corp, but at the same time he felt relieved. He felt even less like seeing Paris now.

After driving for an hour he eventually arrived at the mall. He spotted Paris immediately; she was definitely fatter and she was doing what she did best: flirting with a man. Heaving a huge sigh and bracing himself for a bad time, Goten parked his car and went over to greet Paris. She sent the man she was flirting with away when she saw Goten and squealed happily.

"Hey Goten! You look great!" She said as she tried to plant a kiss on his lips. He veered away from her and she ended up kissing his cheek, much to her disappointment.

"Hi Paris," Goten replied weakly not even bothering to smile, "how are you?"

"I'm brilliant, everything is so perfect," she gushed, her eyes shining. She linked arms with Goten.

"That's good," Goten said wrenching his arm away from her, "but please don't hold onto my arm, I er, bruised it when I was fighting."

Paris grabbed his hands instead, much to his horror. "Oh my poor baby, Goten you have to stop fighting so much, I don't want you to get hurt!" Goten gritted his teeth; it was going to be a long day.

- - - - -

Goten had originally planned to tell Paris that her child was a quarter saiyan, but by the end of the shopping trip he was so angry he decided to let her find out the hard way, ie, when the baby began to kick. Paris had dragged him around every baby shop in the whole mall (there were thousands of them) and had then decided to buy 'a couple of things' for herself. To make things worse she had made Goten carry all the bags and boxes, because it was to much strain on a pregnant woman's body.

Finally Paris had bought just about everything in the mall and had asked Goten for a lift home. On the drive home she had asked him is he wanted to come in for some 'coffee'. By this time, Goten was not even trying to conceal his anger so he had refused bluntly saying he'd rather be shaved bald and painted pink than have sex with her again. She had thrown a tantrum and had ranted about her needs for the rest of the journey boring Goten silly. Now, that she was gone Goten could look forward to going home and being on his own for –

"Shit!" Goten shouted as he drove towards his house. He had just remembered that he had to visit his parents. He sped backwards along the road he was driving on until he came to a place where he could get onto the road towards his parents house. He drove quickly and reached his parents' house in record time. As he parked, he decided that he was not going to deliver the news coated in sugar, oh no, he was in no mood for that.

"Hey mum, dad, guess what?" Goten said as he walked through the open back door into the kitchen.

"Goten! You're early!" Chichi said delightedly.

"Hi son," Goku greeted as cheerfully as ever. (The Son smile on his face as always too)

"Yeah, yeah, listen I have some news for you," Goten said impatiently, his mood getting the better of him. "You're going to have two grandchildren."

"Bra's having twins?" Bulma asked, a huge smile coming to her face.

"No," Goten replied and Chichi's smile faded.

"Well, what do you mean?" she asked uncertainly.

"Paris is pregnant too," Goten told them as if he was commenting on the weather. A shocked hush fell over the room at Goten's revelation.

"H-how can Paris be pregnant?" Chichi asked.

"For fuck's sake mum! We had sex and didn't use protection. How the fuck else would she get pregnant?" Goten snapped, letting out his anger on her. He knew it was wrong but he felt like he had no control over what he was saying.

"Son, Clam down," Goku said, not raising his voice, "we should talk about this."

Chichi and Goten ignored him and glared at each other.

"What about Bra?" Chichi asked through gritted teeth.

"Think mum, here's a big question. Imagine it: Dad get's another woman pregnant, what do you do?" Goten asked sarcastically.

"You've split up then?"

"No, Bra was overjoyed and is throwing a huge party tonight for the three of us, and I'm here to invite you." Goten replied, rolling his eyes.

"Will there be food?" Goku asked hopefully.

"Oh yes, by the bucketful, and it's all prepared by happy little elves."

By then Goku realised that Goten was being sarcastic. "So you got Paris pregnant?"

"_Yes_."

"And Bra's angry with you?"

"_Yes_."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Yes!" Goten almost screamed. "How stupid _are_ you?"

Goku looked hurt, but soon began to grin broadly. He slapped Goten on the back.

"I know what this is about! You're just taking your anger out on us!" Goku said surprisingly wisely. Chichi and Goten stared at him strangely.

"When did you get so smart?" Chichi asked rather bluntly.

"Hey!" Goku whined.

"Sorry dad, but she's right, you can be kind of… 'Dozy', to say the least." Goten said, smiling weakly. That smile became a grimace as Chichi's frying pan connected with his head.

"Don't ever swear at me again!" She yelled, hitting him again with her pan. **Whack.**

"Don't ever yell at me again!" **Whack.**

"Don't yell at your father!" **Whack.**

"These are for hurting Bra!" **Whack. Whack.**

"This one's just for luck!" **Whack.**

She finally stopped hitting him and he rubbed his head gingerly. "Thanks mum, I needed that."

"It's ok; I know how you must be feeling. I'm sure it was an accident. Now, who wants dinner?"

At the mention of dinner both Goten and Goku's stomach rumbled. Chichi rolled her eyes.

"Like father, like son."

- - - - -

That night, after a long day, both demi Saiyans went to their beds both alone, both hurting and both tired. Bra hugged her teddy for comfort; Goten hugged his pillow. Bra was feeling alone and unwanted; Goten was feeling angry and ashamed. Both of them sighed simultaneously and closed their eyes and fell asleep.

_Aww! My babies! It's all too sad! I'm very bad for starting on a new story when I haven't even finished the first but I reckoned I was onto something big with this one. By the way don't expect the next chapter for a while; this one took me a week to write and another 3 days to type up. Phew, well please review!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Jesus almighty-saviour-la-di-da-I'm-not-catholic-I-just-like-saying-his-name Christ! I am honestly très très très surprised I got any of this done! What with the wonders of life (revision and exammies) and God knows what else I still managed to get another LOOOOOOOOOONG chapter done…and I'm proud to say (perhaps as proud as Vegeta) that I know EXACTLY where I'm going with this! Am I like J.K. Rowling or am I like J.K. Rowling? Watch me multi task!_

_p.s. by the way this is one of those random 'time goes past' things…you'll see in the first paragraph._

_Presenting:_

2. Talking 

Pan had been right; Bra had coped remarkably well and was actually quite cheerful despite everything. She was now seven and a half months pregnant and was enjoying lovely kicks from her warrior baby. Pan had stayed true to her word and was helping Bra through everything; she was even giving up her free time to go out with Bra to keep her mind off Goten. Although Pan had done all this it was really thanks to Paris that Bra was happy again. She had laughed for the first time in weeks when Paris had turned up at Capsule Corp. asking Bra is she would like to go on a girly outing with her where they could slag off Goten together.

"After all," she had said, "we're in the same boat."

"No Paris, we are not 'in the same boat'. If I was in the same boat as you, however, I would have jumped overboard and I would have swum far far away from you."

"What?" Paris had squawked, not used to being insulted.

"It means no, I would not like to go out with you to slag off Goten." She said in a helpful tone.

"Well! That's what you get when you try to be nice!" Paris bristled.

"Paris, you are not 'being nice' you are just trying to stir shit. I know how people like you work; you get your kicks out of slagging people off and then telling them everything that was said about them."

Bra had then shut the door in Paris' face to applause from Trunks, Pan and Bulma who had been eavesdropping on the conversation between the two pregnant women. It was then that Bra had burst out laughing at Paris and everyone counted it as huge progress.

Goten, on the other hand, was not doing well. He always asked about Bra whenever he saw Pan (she had forgiven him) because Trunks had stopped talking to him when Bra had given him the news (he was very protective of his sister and his unborn niece/nephew). Pan kept him updated and was always trying to get him to give her a call or meet up with her. He always had an excuse though. Pan wasn't all that bothered by his refusals, she had, ever the meddler, formulated a plan to get them to meet up.

Although the problem with Bra was huge he had an even bigger one in the form of Paris. She was now two weeks from her due date and she had forced him to move in with her 'temporarily' because she was 'scared of going into labour all on her ownsome'. She had also made him sleep in her room in case he couldn't hear her shout when her water broke but on the plus side her 'there's only a double bed' trick had failed.

"Don't worry," Goten had said brightly, "I planned ahead and brought a sleeping bag." And he had crawled into it promptly falling asleep allowing no protests. Gutted thy name was Paris.

- - - - -

After weeks of careful planning Pan had decided on her plan of action. She had called Bra from work and had told her to meet her at a small café. Bra had agreed to go, not suspecting anything. After hanging up, Pan had called Goten and made the same plan but she told him that Bra would be there so he wouldn't run away when he saw her. He had agreed doubtfully.

When he got to the café he saw Bra sitting at a table by herself, tapping her finger nails impatiently on the table and looking at the ceiling boredly. She still looked beautiful, even though she was wearing a pair of ordinary track pants and a baggy t shirt she would normally never been seen dead in and she was heavily pregnant. When she heard the door open she looked happily towards it expecting Pan. She paled considerably when she saw Goten but she still found herself thanking God that she had decided to wash her hair and put on make up, something she had been sorely tempted to forgo.

"Hi," Goten said awkwardly, sitting in the chair furthest away from Bra.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him coldly, although underneath her cold exterior her heart was thudding in panic (she had sworn never to see him again and she hadn't expected to see him either).

Goten frowned, confused. "Pan said that you and her wanted me here."

"Oh…where is she then?" Bra asked stiffly.

"Dunno…" a deafening silence fell upon them.

"You look…" Goten said, pointing at her stomach, breaking the silence.

"Hmm..."

"How have you been?" He continued bravely.

"Ok," she replied, looking at her hands, "You?"

Goten smiled mentally. Now he knew where he stood. He knew Bra very well and he knew that she would never make conversation with someone she didn't want to make conversation with…not even out of politeness. He also knew that if she feigned disinterest then she was really curious as to where the conversation was going.

"I've been better," he replied, his tone more confident. "These past months have been really…phew!"

"I know what you mean," Bra agreed in an almost conversational voice.

"So, do you know what sex our baby is yet?" He asked extremely boldly.

Bra froze at 'our baby'. She had almost forgotten that Goten was its father. She forced herself to relax and surprisingly she found herself smiling.

"No," she said gently, "I want it to be a surprise."

"I guess surprises are nicer," Goten said trying to conceal his disappointment. He smiled at her and she felt a spasm of hurt pass through her. 'Why was he acting so normal?' she asked herself, stupidly though, because she knew exactly why and was furious with herself. She didn't want to be his friend or even _act_ friendly to him. She wanted him to feel bad, she wanted to look as if she hated him and was only staying because she felt she had to.

"How's Paris?" She asked in an icy tone, feeling like a bitchy monster.

Goten's face fell. The conversation had gone quite well until now. "She's fine, the baby's due in 2 weeks."

"I heard you moved in with her."

"She kinda forced me to." He admitted.

"Ok," said Bra disbelievingly.

"When are you due?" Goten asked desperately trying to get back to the good subjects.

"Soon, in a month and a half. You should know that." She said sharply.

"Oh yeah, sorry, it sort of slipped my mind. Can I get you something to eat?" he babbled trying to make amends.

"No."

"A drink then?"

"Water. Still."

"Ok, two seconds."

He half ran to the counter, trying to regain his cool before he had to talk to Bra again. He ordered everything on the menu and a mineral water so it took a while; long enough for him to calm down. He went back the table laden with plates and trays. He set them down and sat back in his chair.

"So how are your parents?" He asked, steering the conversation right away from Paris.

"Ok I guess, well my father is not very happy about the baby but mum's over the moon. They're kinda fighting over me and being overly affectionate, which is weird but it's good to know they _care_." Bra said conversationally, in the voice that made Goten feel very uncomfortable and very guilty, but he struggled on bravely, pretending that he hadn't noticed that her intentions were to make him squirm.

"That's good to hear they're ok. Pan told me you were still training…are you sure you can do that in your condition."

"Yeah, the doctor said gentle exercise is ok, and I'm not sparring. I wouldn't do anything to hurt the baby."

"And _I_ wouldn't want anything to happen to you either," he said quietly.

Bra blushed and fell silent. Goten blushed slightly too. He hadn't intended to say that but he was glad that he had because Bra's whole expression had softened. To stop his awkwardness he took a huge bite of cake. In fact, the quiet went on for so long he finished the cake. Bra eventually looked up at him and she burst out laughing. Goten's eyes widened with fear. Had she become psychotic? Was she about to stab him with the cutlery on the food trays? No, she was pointing at his nose and laughing.

"You are such a child, did you know that?" She giggled.

"What?" He asked confusedly.

"Your nose!" He looked cross eyed at his nose and Bra's heart melted – he looked so adorable. Goten saw what she was laughing at. Half the butter cream off the cake was on his face, mainly his nose. He rubbed at it, spreading it even more.

"Here, let me wipe it off." She picked up a napkin and tenderly wiped the butter cream off his face as if he was a child.

"Thanks," he smiled, blushing slightly at her sudden display of affection.

"I've missed you," she told him softly, not able to hold back her words.

"I've missed you too B-Chan," he replied looking her directly in the eye and using the nickname he used for her ages before they'd even started dating.

Bra felt her throat burn and her eyes fill up with tears. He wasn't meant to say that. He was meant to screw up and make her hate him. He was meant to make a mess of everything.

"I gotta go," she said quickly, standing up. "I'll see you around."

"Wait!" Goten called after her as she walked away from him. She ignored him, intent to get as far away from him as she could. She was so intent on getting away from him she ignored her 'no flying when pregnant' rule and took off. Goten dithered for a while then left 200 zenie on the table and went after her.

Because he was a quicker flyer and she was pregnant he caught up with her within minutes. He flew in front of her causing her to gasp in shock and stop abruptly; she hadn't expected him to have followed her.

"Why did you follow me?" She hissed venomously, hoping and praying that she didn't look upset.

"Because I'm _worried_ about you. I thought we had something going in that café. Why did you just take off like that?"

"You wouldn't understand." She replied bitterly.

"I think I would Bra, and I have every right to know so don't give me that shit!" He said fiercely, sick of her blowing hot and cold. That was a big mistake, because it was so not the way to talk to the daughter of Bulma and Vegeta.

"Don't speak to me like that you no good bastard," she snarled, "you have no idea what I've been through without you, and you have no idea what your 'news' did to me, so don't you ever say you would understand when you don't even know the facts!"

"I have every idea what you've been through, but have you spared any thought as to how I feel? I _got _the both of you pregnant." He growled back.

"You don't have to carry the 'accident'!" Bra shot back.

"I have to be a father to two children, one of which I don't particularly want!"

"Wh-what?" Bra faltered, her anger replaced by fearfulness.

"I know it sounds horrible but it's true. Why would I want it? I don't like the mother, so why would I like the child?"

"G-Goten who are you talking about?" Bra asked her voice catching. Goten realised what he had said and his expression changed to one of horror.

"No Bra, I mean Paris, not you. I want your child, I'm really sorry; it wasn't meant to sound like that!" Hardly thinking he gathered Bra up into his arms, comforting her. She leaned against him weakly, rubbing her cheek slightly against his t shirt, remembering every embrace she'd ever had with him. She looked up at him and he kissed her forehead lightly, like she was a little girl.

"I'm really sorry Bra," He knew he was risking a lot, "for everything. I didn't want Paris to get pregnant, or to move in with her. I'm only staying with her until the birth, and then I'm moving back to my flat."

Bra stiffened slightly, feeling a pang of hurt and a flash of anger, but did not leave his embrace. She wanted badly to forgive him but a mere apology would not make up for months of grief. Getting no reply, Goten sighed defeatedly and released her.

"C'mon, I'll fly you home."

"Ok," Bra replied in a small voice.

- - - - -

They both flew slowly; wanting to prolong their time together with out letting each other know that neither of them wanted to be separated again. Goten thought hard during the journey and after a lot of arguing with himself he decided to ask Bra a question.

"Bra, can I, erm, be there when the baby is born?" he asked awkwardly.

Bra slowed down. "It's only fair you do, it's your child too." Goten smiled broadly at her.

"I can't wait."

"You still have Paris to go through," she reminded him and his face fell.

"I know," he said before adding boldly and dopily, "but that will be like, the storm before the calm."

Bra smiled tiredly at him, rolling her eyes. "Sweetie, it's Calm before the storm."

"No," He argued," You're the calm and Paris is the storm." Then he Son-grinned at her.

Bra shook her head. "It's hard to understand what the hell goes on in that little brain of yours." Then she suddenly clutched her stomach and started losing altitude.

"Bra!" Goten yelled as he flew down to catch her. "What's wrong? What's happened? Is it the baby?" he panicked.

"Shit! Ow! Yeah, it feels like a kick but a lot stronger!" Bra grimaced in pain.

"Shit! Fuck! What should I do? Do you want to go to hospital?"

"No," Bra replied through gritted teeth, "Take me to my dad, he knows about Saiyan pregnancies."

"Your – Your dad?" Goten asked fearfully.

"Yes now Hurry!"

"Ok," he said reluctantly, and he flew to Capsule Corp as quickly as he could. He deposited Bra on a couch and ran to find Vegeta. He found him in the GR.

"Vegeta! Bra's hurt" The baby!" Goten said when he got to the GR.

Vegeta's eyes narrowed dangerously when he saw Goten. "What are you doing here? My daughter wants nothing to do with you, you are not welcome here."

"Please, she's hurt." Goten said desperately and to his relief some of Vegeta's anger seemed to subside.

"Where is she?" he asked shortly.

"In the living room."

He walked briskly to her with Goten hot on his heels. When he got to her he squatted down in front of her.

"What's wrong now brat?"

"Daddy, it's this huge pain in my stomach," she panted through her pain, "like when the baby kicks but a million times worse."

"Hmph," Vegeta snorted, "a lot of unnecessary fuss. The baby probably just blasted you with ki or something."

Bra's eyes widened. "They can do that?"

"It's not unheard of but when you're carrying the child of two Saiyans, both from the line of the most powerful warriors in the universe, it's not surprising." He snorted again before shooting a look of pure unadulterated loathing at Goten. "You may leave now."

"I want to see if Bra will be ok," he protested.

"She doesn't want you here," Vegeta snarled back at him.

"Daddy, it's fine, he helped me get here and I'd like to talk to him." Vegeta glared at Goten but respected his daughter's wishes by leaving the two demi-Saiyans to talk.

"Are you ok now?" Goten asked concernedly once Vegeta was out of earshot.

"Not really, I feel like my insides have been completely incinerated, but at least I know we have a healthy baby."

"God, I was so worried when you fell." He told her rather shyly.

"That sounds so corny Goten." Bra said rolling her eyes.

"Well, it's true," he pouted.

"Then thank you for being worried," she teased gently.

"I just hate to think what would have happened if I hadn't followed you."

"Yeah, but I guess if I died it would be completely my fault for storming off." She joked wryly.

"Don't say that! I don't know what I would do if I lost you and the baby."

Bra blushed and smiled to herself. "So…you do still like me?"

"Of course I do," Goten said surprised, "why would you think I didn't?"

"Well, for one I wasn't exactly very nice to you today and secondly…promise you won't laugh but…I thought, well, that you only had sex with me because you were hurt because of Paris and I was….easy."

"Bra I would never do that to you," Goten said seriously, "How could you think that? I started dating you because I realised-"

"Don't say it," Bra interrupted. "Don't you dare. Don't think that you can say _that _and this will all be sorted. I'm not going to get hurt again."

"But I'm really sorry Bra," Goten said, taken aback, "and it would be the truth if I said it."

"I don't trust you Goten. When someone hears that the man they love has gotten someone else pregnant, they don't usually tend to even speak to them, let alone trust what they say. How do I know whether you're up to something?"

"Bra, I swear to you, that I am honestly, truly, completely sorry. I didn't want this to happen; all I ever wanted was _you_."

Bra's eyes pricked at his words and her anger faded away.

"So please Bra," he begged, "can we start again? Can you forgive me?"

"I can't Goten! I can't live with having to share you." She said, her voice catching.

"You won't be sharing me," he insisted.

"Goten! Stop forgetting Paris!" Bra said, her anger returning to her.

"Stop remembering her! If we're together she won't matter. I'll just be seeing the kid from time to time. I won't be seeing her."

"Goten!" Bra said sharply, "do you know what you're saying? As much as I dislike Paris that is the nastiest thing I have ever heard. You can't do something like that to a child, even if you don't want them. It's your problem and you have to deal with it. I don't even think you've accepted the fact that both me _and_ Paris are pregnant."

Goten furrowed his brow and sighed. "I know, you're right. I'm sorry again. I'm making a mess of everything again, aren't I? I should go."

"Goten wait," she said, taking a step towards him as he made to leave.

He turned around and looked at her hopefully. She seemed to be struggling with herself, and then she started sobbing. "I don't want you to leave me! I don't want you to go and leave me to act like I'm fine. I don't want to feel like this for the rest of my life." She sank to the floor sobbing uncontrollably.

Goten walked over to where she was sitting and sat next to her. "I won't leave you if you don't want me to." He told her softly.

"I'm so confused," she howled, "I want to hate you! I _do_ hate you. But underneath, I love you so much." She felt her heart tear in two and all the pain she had kept in since that first day when Pan had stayed over washed over her. "Why," she whispered more to herself than Goten, "why did this happen to me? Did I do something wrong?"

"It's not your fault Bra. You've done nothing wrong, it's me." Goten said, comforting her whilst guilt tripping himself. He hated to think that he was the reason for her grief, her tears.

- - - - -

Only five minutes ago Vegeta had come in to see the state his daughter was in after her talk and to pound Goten into the ground but he found that the two were still talking. He had sat down at the kitchen to wait for Goten to leave but then he had heard his daughter cry and decided to interfere.

"What the hell have you done?" He snarled accusatively at Goten after he saw the condition his daughter was in.

"Nothing, I swear, she just burst into tears," Goten said defensively, although somewhat fearfully.

"Get the hell away from here before I hurt you." Vegeta said dangerously, his eyes flashing green.

"Bye Bra," Goten whispered in her ear as he stood up to leave. "Bye Vegeta!" He said politely to the older man before half running out of them room.

"Princess, what happened?" Vegeta asked, almost gently.

Bra sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "Nothing daddy, I'm just getting mixed feelings."

"Don't you dare forgive him," Vegeta warned. "You should have let me get rid of him."

"I know, I'm sorry daddy," Bra said meekly, bowing her head. She heaved herself to her feet and breathed in deeply, calming herself.

"Bra, I want you to stay away from him. See that you listen to me this time."

"Right daddy," she said miserably. "I'm going to my room. I need some time to myself."

- - - - -

As Goten flew towards Paris' house he couldn't help wishing he could start the day over. He shouldn't have been so insistent about getting back with her. After all, it had been the first time he'd seen her since breaking the news to her. He shouldn't have left her to deal with her dad alone either; he should have stood up for her. He wondered what she was doing. He remembered the way she had crumpled to the floor, hurting and scared of being alone.

"I'm such an ass hole," he said furiously to himself.

"We know, and it's a big step forward that you've admitted it."

"Hey Pan," Goten said flatly to his niece. "Are you following me?"

"Maybe, but that's not important right now. How did it go?"

"Oh yeah! You set us up!"

"It was for your own good."

"Pan, it was not good, it was terrible. There is no way today could get any worse."

"Don't say that you'll temp fate." Pan stated boredly loop-the-looping in the air.

"I don't think it can be any more tempted. I already made Bra cry, hurt and I made her have an emotional breakdown."

"But she talked to you?"

"No, I talked to her the whole and she just used sign language to reply." Goten replied sarcastically.

"Funny, Bra never mentioned that she could do sign language."

"Hilarious," Goten agreed, "now what do you want? I know you have something to tell me."

"Yep, you know me way too well. But, before I tell you, you need to tell _me_ how things were left between you? Are you going to meet up again?"

"I don't know, it wasn't exactly the best of meetings."

"Bummer, well, I guess I'll try harder next time. Don't worry uncle Goten, I have everything sorted. I know how busy you're gonna be for the next few weeks so I took the liberty to plan some things for you."

"What? I'm not busy?"

"Sure you are! Grandma called and said that the baby is being born today, and with babies comes business."

"_What_!"

"Gotta go Uncle Goten, have a nice time at the hospital and send Grandma and Grandpa my love!"

Goten hovered, paralysed in shock. Pan raised her eyebrows at him. "Anytime today sweetie."

He stayed still, mouth open. Pan grabbed his arm, huffing impatiently. "Right, the hospital is this way," she said, pointing in the direction of the hospital. "If you get lost, just look for Grandpa's ki, he's already there with Grandma. Now go!"

Goten nodded dazedly and flew dazedly in vaguely the right direction. "Goten!" Pan said sharply. "Get your saiyan rear in gear before grandma learns to fly and kills you." Goten snapped out of his trance and flew faster towards the hospital, locking into his father's ki signature.

- - - - -

Bra flopped onto her bed, ready for a long cry in private, but now that Goten was gone, she find that she couldn't cry and only made snivelling noises which sounded so stupid that she shut up. She got back up and looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyeliner had run and a few tendrils of hair had escaped from her neat ponytail. She turned sideways to get a better view of her huge stomach and smiled fondly at it.

"Bothering Goten Jr again?"

"Pan!" Bra groaned. "Stop calling it that! You don't even know if it's a boy."

"I bet it is. And I'll bet he'll look just like Goten as a revenge for your vendetta with him."

"Vendetta? Ooh! Long words Pan," Bra mocked.

"Tease me all you like Bra, I don't care," Pan said sniffily, pretending to be arguing.

"Hey, I should be angry with you Pna. You're little plan fucked everything up."

"Stop exaggerating," she replied boredly, lying on Bra's bed. "Goten said it wasn't that bad."

"You saw him?"

"Yeah, my grandma sent me to find him. Paris is having the baby."

"Oh man, someone really has it in for me."

"Blame Goten, he was tempting fate."

"Stop it Pan, you're not helping."

"Sorry, erm, Bra, you wouldn't happen to be a little bit curious about Pris' baby would you? It's just, well if you and Goten are going to have a family, you might as well meet your step child. And anyway, I want to meet my cousin."

"Pan! That is a horrible thing to say to me! You know how I feel about this! And me and your uncle are NOT getting together."

"Ok, sorry again, but can you come…for me?"

"Pan…" Bra groaned.

"Pretty please? You don't have to see him or her. You can hang with my grandparents."

"Fine. But I'm bringing Marron so we can hide together if we see Goten."

"You're the best friend ever."

- - - - -

_Ta da! Aww, it's so adorable but confusing. The whole Bra changing moods thing is because she is confused, ok? I'm not just randomly forgetting what the hell I'm talking about. Next chapter will be cool, I swear. I definitely need more reviews though… The three I got for chapter 1 were great but I need more…MORE! Any who, Chapter 3 might be up next week, but it depends on how many exams I have. Urgh! Love you all readers! xxxxxxx_


	3. Chapter 3

_Here we go again! The hospital scene. This is meant to be a funnier part of the story, but there we definitely be more not-funny stuff coz Bra's there etc. Erm, this chapter is definitely dedicated to my godmother, because I had writers block and I had no idea what would happen, but a visit to her house solved that, and got me hooked on Inuyasha! Well, any who, here's the next chapter:_

3. Beauty!

"Bra, remind me again, why did I let you talk me into this?" Groaned Marron for the twelfth time.

It had been two hours since Bra, Pan and Marron had arrived at the hospital. As soon as they had arrived Chichi had dragged Pan to where Paris was giving birth, which was more than Pan had bargained for. Goku had been left in the waiting room because of his squeamishness and 'fainting problem' and had fallen asleep in his chair, snoring loudly. Bra was curled up in a chair looking boredly at the ceiling and Marron was been sitting on the floor and had managed to give herself a manicure, a pedicure and a haircut. Bra sighed exasperatedly.

"Because you're my friend and I need support in case Goten sees me."

"If you don't want to see him and you don't like Paris, then why are you here?"

"Because Pan wanted me here."

"So why do you need me?"

"Marron, I just answered that!"

"But Bra, I'm so bored!" she whined. Goku snorted in his sleep and opened his eye.

"Is the baby born yet?" He asked sleepily.

"No," Marron muttered sullenly.

"Hey…" Goku said, waking up more, "you cut your hair!"

"Dya like it?" Marron asked coyly, twirling her hair between her fingers.

"Marron!" Bra said, snorting disgustedly. "Stop it!"

"I'm not doing anything!" she protested innocently.

"Yes, you are, he is married."

Goku blinked at Bra. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing," Bra replied.

Goku blinked again and yawned widely. He too was bored. And sleepy. And hungry. He didn't understand why women disappeared for a couple of hours and came back with a baby. He had only witnessed a short amount of a birth before he fainted, and now he was always left waiting in the waiting room. He moved to lie spread eagled on the floor so that he could sleep more comfortably. The second his head hit the floor he was snoring again. Bra looked strangely at him, before exchanging a look with Marron.

"You know, there's something definitely wrong with him," Marron commented, looking at his sleeping form.

"You think?" Bra asked.

"Oh, definitely, without a doubt." Marron replied.

Bra rolled her eyes and shifted in her uncomfortable chair. "I'm hungry…"

"Again? But you ate everything in the vending machine!"

"Yeah, but, you know I'm eating for two!"

"Honestly Bra! I am never going to a restaurant with you!"

"Good! Coz all you do is whine!" Bra snapped.

"Hey! I'm doing you a favour being here! Stop being so - "

She was cut off as she heard Pan's voice.

"Shit! Do you think Goten's with her?" Bra asked worriedly, getting up. "Check for me Marron."

Huffing impatiently Marron got up to peer down the corridor. Pan and Chichi were walking towards the waiting room. Neither of them looked very happy.

"It's ok Bra, it's Pan and Chichi."

Bra calmed down and sank back into her seat.

"Jesus!" Pan said the second she got to the waiting room. "That woman is a nightmare. Shrieking and swearing every five seconds, you'd think she was dying."

"Poor Goten," Chichi said sympathetically, "though he deserves it." She added, smiling sympathetically at Bra.

"So…has the baby been born?" Marron asked curiously.

"No, the stupid woman told us to get out. She only started actually giving birth now! She was squealing about how gross it would look and told us to leave."

"Oh my God, so we have to sit here for another God knows how long?" Marron asked, groaning again.

"Yep," Pan said, a little more brightly.

"Does Goten know I'm here?" Bra asked anxiously.

"No," Pan told her.

Bra let the relief wash over her. What the hell would he think of her being here? Suddenly she felt a light kick. That baby always seemed to know when she was thinking of Goten and she now found it reassuring, but she had no idea why. She had unconsciously begun grinning widely and was earning herself a few odd looks from the people in the waiting room.

"Just ignore her people;" Pan said loudly, "she's in la-la land. There's absolutely nothing to worry about."

Marron looked at Bra. She looked so happy. It was strange to think that in a month or so it would be her turn. Marron sighed happily. Pan stared at her and rolled her eyes.

"Grandma, they are all crazy."

"Oh leave them Pan; I was exactly the same when your dad and uncle were due."

Pan shuddered. "Honestly, you lot are completely mad. Childbirth is meant to be really painful. Seriously, if that's your idea of a good time then…."

"But Pan," Bra interrupted. "I'll be a mummy. Isn't that amazing? I never thought about it properly before…"

"Spare me," Pan drawled. "I'm not in the mood to handle a load of sweetness."

"You're so unemotional Pan; I hope you have loads of kids, just so you know how we feel."

"Ha! As if, I haven't even got a boyfriend, why the hell would I have kids?"

"Pan… I know someone who likes you though." Bra said teasingly.

"You do?" Pan asked uninterestedly. "It better not be one of your mum's workers."

"Nope, it's someone that I think you'll like." She said, eyes glinting mischievously.

Marron and Chichi looked curiously at Bra.

"Bra, tell me before I kill you."

"No, I won't, because I think you have a pretty good idea who I'm talking about."

Chichi and Marron transferred their gaze to Pan.

"I DON'T LIKE YOUR BROTHER!" Pan roared, blushing bright red.

"Who said I was talking about my brother?" Bra asked, smirking.

"Ha!" Marron laughed. "Busted!"

"That doesn't mean anything, I just assumed it because she always says that Trunks like me and that I like him. And I don't!"

Bra smiled knowingly to herself as her friend tried desperately to deny that she liked Trunks. It was obvious by Chichi and Marron's' expressions that they didn't believe a word of what Pan was saying. Eventually they stopped teasing Pan and Chichi glanced at her husband.

"He didn't faint did he?" She asked.

"No, he fell asleep." Bra told her, hiding a grin.

"Typical," Chichi said, walking over to him. "Goku, sweetheart, time to wake up."

"No," he mumbled, "go away, give me five more minutes."

"Honey, you have to wake up."

"No!"

"GOKU WAKE UP NOW!" She yelled. Goku jumped about a foot in the air and looked for his attacker.

"What was that for?" He whined sadly.

"You are showing me up again. Can't you stay awake for five minutes? You're grandchild is being born!"

"Well, my grandchild is taking too long. I'm bored!" he said childishly.

Bra, Pan and Marron burst out laughing at him. He turned to face them.

"Why is everyone so mean to me? It's like everything I say is a joke!"

They laughed even harder, holding onto each other for support.

"Stop it! It's not funny."

The girls continued to laugh while Goku looked forlornly at them. Eventually they stopped.

"That was so funny," Bra spluttered.

"Oh my God Pan, your grandpa cracks me up!"

"I don't even know why I was laughing!" Pan groaned rubbing her sides.

Chichi watched them, she understood why they were laughing but surely it wasn't _that_ funny? Goku often acted childishly, and it wasn't the first time he had acted like that. She put it down to nerves and forgot about it, then grabbed Goku's hand and led him off to find somewhere where he could eat.

"You know what?" Bra said as soon as Goku and Chichi had left.

"No, what?" Pan asked, looking at her friend.

"Goten is just like his dad."

"No he's not, Goku doesn't have a brain cell in his head, bless him." Marron said, frowning.

"I know but he's still childish. Do you know how many times he stropped because I didn't buy ice cream or sweets?"

"Really? I've never seen that side of him before."

"It's cute though," Bra added.

"I thought you hated him," Marron said. "How can you think someone is cute and hate them at the same time?"

"I don't hate him. I'm just very very very very very angry with him, and I didn't say that he was cute, I just said that what he does is cute."

"Oh…ok…" Marron said, slightly confused.

Their conversation was cut short as they heard footsteps coming towards the waiting room. Bra grabbed Marron and ran out of the waiting room.

"Hey!" Marron protested, once they were away from the waiting room, "you hurt my arm!"

"Sorry," Bra apologised, trying to suppress her ki.

"No problem. Hey, I want to hear what they're saying! Let's move closer!"

Marron moved closer to the door of the waiting room and tried to listen to what was being said.

"Nope, I can't here anything. What about you? My dad said that Saiyans have good hearing. Why don't you listen?"

Bra moved over to where Marron was standing and pressed her ear against the door.

"…_God, if I ever have to do that again, I swear to God I'll die." Goten said tiredly._

"_Was it that bad?"_

"_Hell yeah, she kept calling me names and she squeezed the life out of my hand, and then she wouldn't let me look at the baby!" _

Bra turned to Marron. "The baby's been born," she whispered.

"_Is it a boy or a girl?"_

"_A girl." Goten told her._

"_Wow, I have a cousin!" Pan said boredly. "Will Princess Paris let me see her?"_

"_No, Paris said that she only wants me there."_

_Pan's voice suddenly adopted a concerned tone. "Goten, are you ok? You don't look so good."_

"_I know," he said, "I'm kind of overwhelmed. It's so amazing, but I feel so bad."_

"_No need to ask why," Pan commented before sympathising. "Oh Goten." There was a pause and Bra assumed that Pan was hugging Goten. "You'd better get back to Paris. You still have to name your daughter."_.

"_Yeah," Goten said wearily, "I'd better go, but I'll come back to show you her."_

Bra waited until she'd heard him leave and then dragged Marron back into the waiting room.

"A girl huh?" Bra asked, feeling angry, "_it's so amazing_?" she quoted.

"It's a girl?" Marron asked.

"You eavesdropped then?" Pan asked.

"Yeah, I had to know what was going on."

"Well, now you know it's a girl."

"I don't care whether it's a girl or a boy! This shouldn't be happening!"

"You mean it shouldn't have happened," Marron corrected.

Bra glared at her then sank down on to the floor. Pan and Marron watched her anxiously. "Why me?" She moaned. Pan and Marron exchanged anxious glances. What was Bra going to do? Bra closed her eyes and huffed loudly. Pan and Marron's worried expressions became more worried.

"Bra…" Pan said uncertainly.

Bra opened her eyes and glared at her. Her face had adopted a determined look and she got up slowly. She laughed rather evil laugh as she began walking down the corridor to where Goten and Paris were. Pan and Marron gulped simultaneously as they started to follow her. Bra's pace was quite slow but there was something menacing about it and it built apprehension. What was she going to do? People always tried to stay on Bra's good side because if you had Vegeta for a father and had an attitude that matched his it was for the best. Bra reached Paris' room.

She growled slightly as she pushed the door open. Both Goten and Paris' heads snapped towards the door to ogle at the fat and the furious Bra. Goten was holding the baby and his mouth fell open as soon as he saw her. Paris regarded her coldly.

"What are you doing here?" Paris asked frostily, taking the baby from Goten and clutching it protectively to her chest.

Bra ignored her and stepped into the room, closing the door in Pan's face. She was staring fixatedly at Goten. He unconsciously shivered under her gaze.

"Bra…" he said nervously, "why did you come here? I-"

"Shut it!" she barked at him.

Pan and Marron watched her through the window on the door. They decided it was best not to interfere unless things got bad.

"Goten," Paris said, her voice dripping with venom, "get her out of here now."

Goten was tied. Paris and Bra in the same room was definitely a bad idea, but if he had to face Bra in the mood she was in he might end up dead, or worse.

"Goten!" Paris said more sharply.

"Shit," he muttered, looking from one woman to the other. "Bra, do you…erm…want to talk?"

Paris snorted disgustedly. Bra smirked, knowing how she would get him and Paris without using any violence what so ever.

"I don't mind if I do," she said in a normal voice, although her face was still one of someone seeking vengeance. "Goten, could you possibly get me a chair?"

Goten gulped. "Shouldn't we go somewhere else? Paris isn't in any condition to talk." His voice was shaking.

"No, I reckon here is fine; after all, if that child she's holding is my baby's half sister, then we're all family, right?" Bra replied simply, with an ever so dangerous look in her eyes as she looked at the bundle in Paris' arms. Paris shifted nervously, beginning to fear the blue haired girl watching her daughter calmly.

Deciding it would definitely be better to play by Bra's rules, Goten got Bra a chair. She barely acknowledged him as she sat down and got comfortable. She looked around at Goten and Paris' tense expressions and laughed.

"What's wrong people? Loosen up; I'm not here to kill you." She stayed bright but everyone could hear the slight sinister tint in her voice. "Let's talk. So, Paris, Paris and Goten, what's this beautiful baby girl called?"

Silence.

"What?" Bra said, mock shocked. "No name yet? Surely you must have thought of one? After all those months together? That's almost a crime."

"Her name is Belle," Paris said through gritted teeth.

"Belle? That mean's beautiful right? How fitting, she'll be just like her mother." Bra said sweetly.

"And how about you Goten? What do you think about 'Belle'? She's _amazing _isn't she?"

Goten nodded dumbly, his eyes pleading with her. Bra's eyes glinted malevolently. She had no intention of dropping this. She was going to get him good.

"Well, for some one who is amazed, you sure don't seem to be saying much," Bra commented, smiling at him. "Paris, may I hold my half daughter? Is that what they call them when you have a child that's related to your child but not yours?"

"No, you may not hold _my_ daughter," she snarled.

Bra pouted. "Goten, can't you talk some sense into her? It's only fair. As a family we should be able to share! After all, we were already sharing a man!" Bra laughed to herself.

Goten went bright red. Bra smirked again triumphantly, happy she was making him uncomfortable. He deserves it, she thought smugly as she continued grinning broadly at the room's occupants.

"Paris? Do you think maybe it would be a good idea to give her the baby to hold?" Goten muttered.

"No," Paris said furiously. "I'm not letting that slut touch my baby?"

"What?" Bra said incredulously, "I'm the slut? That's a bit rich coming from you? When did you lose your virginity darling? How many guys have you been screwing? Let me admit this, I'm actually surprised that's Goten's baby!"

Paris flushed slightly. "What I do is none of your business! I haven't played Goten, I never would, in fact, I reckon we'll get married one day," Paris said triumphantly at Bra who burst out laughing.

"So Goten, tell me, when were you planning to propose?"

Paris and Bra watched him intently.

"Erm…" Goten struggled for words. "I don't think we're getting erm, married."

"What?" Paris exploded, waking the baby, who started crying.

"What?" Bra gasped theatrically. "Are you planning to marry me then Goten?"

"No," Goten said meekly, trying to sound as if he meant it and failing miserably.

"Are you in love with me Goten?"

"Oh God. Bra, why are you doing this?" Goten asked, bright red.

"Why am I doing this? Paris dear, did you hear him? He's asking me why I'm doing this! Dear God Goten!" Paris said in an exaggeratedly shocked voice. She stood, eyes blazing. "I'LL TELL YOU WHY I'M DOING THIS YOU DISGUSTING TRAMP! I WANT YOU TO SUFFER LIKE I DID! I WANT YOU TO FEEL WHAT I FELT! EVERY SINGLE CRAPPY EMOTION!" She smoothed her hair down and smiled calmly again. "Feel embarrassed yet?" She asked sweetly as she left the room.

_Wow, that was fun writing, shame it took so long, but I reckon it was worth it! I loved the last part, didn't you? _


	4. Chapter 4

_Hopefully this one will be published quicker than chapter 3, because that was a cruel wait for readers, but yeah, I'm really sorry about that loyal fans lol! I still love you all! Enjoy!_

4. Independent Woman

Bra, Pan and Marron had gone back to Capsule Corp after Bra's speech. Marron watched Bra proudly whilst Pan looked incredulous.

"Bra, I know that you're Vegeta's daughter and all that and you've got a temper, but, bloody hell! Was that really necessary?"

"Yeah, he's never as embarrassed as I was when I had to tell everyone that the man I thought I loved had gotten another woman pregnant."

"But Bra, you know that you shouldn't do that. Two rights don't make a wrong."

"For God's sake Pan! You sound like your grandmother!" Marron joined the conversation, "Bra, I'm so proud of you, you should have done that ages ago. Always get revenge! That's the only way men learn."

"Hmph," Bra snorted, "I don't care what you two think, he deserved that and everything else I'm gonna do to him."

Marron and Pan looked at each other. Pan looked worried and Marron was smirking. She loved a good scandal and the good gossip that came with it.

"You should sew fish into his curtains. When it gets hot the smell is…PHWOAR!" Marron suggested giggling stupidly. "I read about it in this really funny book."

"I was planning something more painful, lucky for him I have this baby, but as soon as I'm back to normal…he'll see!"

"You shouldn't use violence." Marron pointed out, "it's too masculine."

"Ha! Who said I would?"

Pan rolled her eyes. "Leave him alone Bra, he doesn't need this, can't you see it's already hurting him that he can't be with you or his kid. You aren't the only one hurting and you need to remember that."

"Whose side are you on?" Bra asked indignantly.

"No one's!" Pan replied. "You need to stop behaving like a child and talk about this and sort it out. You need to start acting your age, Goten is, for once."

"He's 31!" Bra protested, I'm 24, I'm allowed to act a little more immature!"

Pan rolled her eyes but decided to keep quiet. Marron was smiling gleefully, glad of some gossip. Her other friends loved hearing about the daughter of one of the richest people on Earth. The pregnancy was big gossip, Marron thought, but imagine what they'll think when they hear about what happened at the hospital!

Once the trio got to Capsule Corp, Pan decided not to stick around and said a hurried good bye to Marron and Bra. She didn't think she could put up with Bra lagging off her poor uncle any more. Marron wanted to stay to hear more and be 'supportive' and wind up Vegeta. She also wanted to flirt with Trunks, and maybe even get into bed with him. That would really piss Pan off, she thought, loving her own scandal as much as anyone else's.

Marron and Bra walked into Capsule Corp's huge kitchen. It had to be big to contain food for three and a half Saiyans, and since it was the most popular room in the house there had to be space to move around. Marron spied Trunks at the table the second she stepped into the kitchen. She immediately smoothed her t shirt out and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Hey Trunks," she said, smiling flirtatiously at him.

"Hi Marron," Trunks said, checking her out. She giggled as Trunks watched her and he blushed slightly.

"Trunks," Bra said flatly, "out!"

Trunks shrugged and rolled his eyes at her as he left. "Whatever you wish Queen Bra."

Marron looked at Bra angrily. "Hey! Bra, I wanted to talk to Trunks! He'll want to know what happened!"

"No," Bra replied bluntly, "I don't want to talk to him yet and plus you're here with me, not him. And I'm not sure if Pan would appreciate you flirting with her man."

"She doesn't like him!"

"Don't be stupid, as far as I'm concerned, they're already dating."

Marron crossed her arms angrily and pouted. "Fine," she said sulkily, "like I care anyway, he likes me anyway. I could have him any day."

"Hmm," said Bra uninterestedly before sighing gustily. She was hungry and tired. Mainly hungry, but very tired. She tried to get her mind to choose what she wanted to eat but it was only thinking of Goten and Paris. And Belle now. They had their family. Goten didn't want her now. She had thought that maybe they could make it work but now she had ruined it by making it seem as though she hated him. She had hated him at the time but now realisation had hit her. Tears leaked from her eyes despite how hard she was trying to hold them back. Marron regarded her sulkily.

"What now?" She spat.

Bra shook her head mutely, not wanting to tell Marron and wishing Pan had decided to stay.

Marron huffed and turned away from Bra disgustedly. "You're feeling bad aren't you? I knew it! You people are too soft!"

"Piss off Marron, if you're not gonna help, go home." Bra said thickly.

"Oh my God Bra! I went to hospital with you because you wanted to see Goten's baby and spent all those hours waiting and you treat me like this? I'm trying to help! You're so selfish, you're totally wrapped up in yourself! Goten got another woman pregnant! So what? Shit happens! You hate him! So what? It happens! But, gasp, you don't hate him, you love him! So what? Nobody cares about your problems any more because you're fine, you're just looking for sympathy. You always have to be the centre of attention. You've become so dependant on others and you have to get out of this little world you've made and face the real world! Get over yourself Bra!" Marron glared at Bra before storming out of the kitchen. Bra stared after her open mouthed. What had she just said to her? Nobody ever spoke to Bra like that, and for good reason. Bra stood up furiously.

"Marron!" She yelled. "Get back here you stupid whore!"

"No Bra, I'm pissing off now," Marron said acidly, continuing her walk to the door without stopping or looking at Bra.

"Don't you talk to me like that and walk away!" Bra shrieked after Marron.

Vegeta, Trunks and Bulma ran downstairs to see what was going on.

"I'll talk to you however I want, you need it, you've got your own way to much and it's about time you stood on your own two feet. You can thank me later." Marron added flippantly as she left, leaving Bra staring at the door outraged.

"Who the hell does she think she is?" Bra asked no one in particular.

"She has a point," Trunks said.

Bra turned on him and fired a Ki blast at him before storming off to her room like a teenager after an argument. Seconds later there came a loud thump and a splintering sound as Bra broke the door to her room. Bulma winced slightly at the prospect of more work whilst Trunks and Vegeta rolled their eyes tiredly.

"Go and talk to her Vegeta," Bulma ordered.

"Why me? You're the woman!"

"Do it now," Bulma snapped, causing Trunks to grimace. Vegeta decided it was best not to argue and stormed rather reluctantly to Bra's room where he found her packing a suitcase.

"What are you doing?" he asked curiously, as he leant himself against one of her bedroom walls, ready for a talk.

"I'm leaving!" Bra stated as she dumped clothes into the suitcase.

"Leaving?"

"Yes, I'm not dependant, I don't need anyone! I'm going to live by myself, I'm 24 and it's about time I moved out!"

Shit, Vegeta thought, not wanting his baby to leave him. "Your mother wouldn't want you to go."

"I know," Bra replied sadly, "but I have to go, it's not fair if I keep dumping my problems on everyone else."

"Hmph," Vegeta said, thinking the opposite, his daughter's problems weren't bothering him; he just hated to see her upset. "You're leaving because of what Marron said?"

"No!" Bra said indignantly.

"Well why did you only decide now?"

"I didn't! I've been thinking about it for ages!" Bra lied, badly.

"Hmph, Bra, you're a bad liar." Vegeta scowled at the wall opposite him and crossed his arms tiredly. "You don't have to go, no one is bothered."

"Yes they are!" Bra retorted rather viciously. "Trunks is, Marron is and even Pan is!"

"They're all worthless half breeds, their opinions count for nothing."

"Erm, daddy, if Trunks is a worthless half-breed, then what am I?"

Vegeta blushed ever so slightly and replied. "A not worthless half-breed."

Bra cocked her head to one side. "You don't think I'm worthless? I thought you hated it that I didn't train like everyone else and lived more like a human."

"Hmph," Vegeta replied, too embarrassed to say anything else.

"Daddy…" Bra said helplessly. "I have to go. I can't stay here now that I know what my friends think. I don't want to look like some weak little human." She finished, smiling a small smile at her father.

He raised his head slightly, acknowledging her point, knowing that he would have to let her go. He closed his eyes to think and Bra went over to where he was standing and hugged him tightly. "I'll really miss living with you and mum but I'll visit all the time. You can even pick my flat. I'll be out of here by tomorrow." Her voice was thick with tears and she brushed them away roughly before releasing him. He hated seeing his daughter cry.

"So, I'll go and tell mum and Trunks?" Bra questioned.

Vegeta nodded and the two made their way downstairs to where Trunks and Bulma were waiting for news. Bulma inspected their faces trying to read their expressions. It was something bad, she could tell, but what could it be?

"Bra, honey, what's wrong?" Bulma asked.

"I want to move out."

Bulma wasn't expecting it but took in a deep breath and tried not to appear too shocked. "Why Bra? You've got everything here."

"I can't keep burdening you with my problems and I don't want to keep you awake with crying once the baby's born." Bra said flatly. "I want to be more independent, like Marron and Pan are. They got their own places ages ago."

"I haven't moved out and I'm 32," Trunks told her.

"Yeah, but you work here."

"So? You could get a job here."

"Thanks Trunks, but I like my job and I don't want to stay. I want my own place."

"But Bra, what about when the baby's born…"

Bra shook her head, not able to look her mother in the eye. "Mum, I'm not changing my mind. Sorry."

- - - - -

So it was settled. Bra stayed up printing off pictures of houses and apartments that she liked and then in the morning she showed her parents. They reluctantly chose their favourite and by midday, she was gone, leaving the house unnaturally quiet, save for Bulma's muffled sobs. Her only daughter was gone. Vegeta felt the same but kept his emotions in tact. Trunks was strangely subdued too. They had never thought Bra would leave CC. Trunks, maybe, Bra, no.

As Bra pulled up outside her new home she felt a huge wave of emotion hit her. She was still wearing the sunglasses she'd put on to hide her tears despite the fact that there was no sun. She was glad that she had because she could feel her eyes watering. Bra picked up the pile of boxes in her car easily and made her way inside. The receptionist gave her the keys and showed her to the lifts, deciding to ignore the fact that a frail looking woman was carrying five boxes single-handedly.

Having a multi millionaire mum had caused Bra to move into the penthouse flat in Tokyo's flashiest neighbourhood. The last floor was the 18th and the lift was quite slow so Bra found herself thinking about her Goten, a subject she tried to avoid. She had been overly immature and completely out of order. She knew that Paris giving birth was unavoidable but yet she had still gone and made a bigger mess of the situation. Bra leaned tiredly against the wall of the elevator. It was reaching the top floor.

"17…18," Bra mumbled as the lights on the panel in the elevator moved.

The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Bra stepped out and set down the boxes. She took her keys out of her pocket and opened the door. The flat was huge. Bra pushed the boxes into the front room and looked around. There was a balcony to one side and a door to another and a door at the far side. Bra checked the first door. It led to a fully equipped kitchen. Bra looked around in awe at the tidiness and technology of it. The kitchen at Capsule Corp was big, but it wasn't pretty and it was very basic. The two male Saiyans threw too many food related tantrums for niceness and tidiness.

Through the other door there were two bedrooms, a bathroom and a flight of stairs. It led to two empty rooms and the roof, where there was a swimming pool. Wow, Bra thought, I have my own swimming pool! It sounded strange because she'd always had one, but it was so much better now that it was _officially_ hers. She stared around in awe at the whole of her house. Sure, it was completely empty save for the kitchen but it was so big and beautiful. Bra rushed downstairs and began to unpack. She took her suitcases to one of the bedrooms, she took all her toiletries to the bathroom, She left a box of baby things in the other bedroom and finally left the last box (of food) in the kitchen.

Once that was sorted she decided to call Goten and apologise. Her life was looking up. She felt less dependant and wanted to make a fresh start with anyone so she nervously dialled his number and waited for him to pick up.

"Yeah?" Came Goten's voice at last.

"Hi, Goten, it's me Bra."

"Bra?" Confusion was evident in his voice.

"Yeah, listen, I'm…I'm really sorry about yesterday, I was really stupid and immature." She paused. "I'm just erm, so sorry."

"No problem," Goten replied cheerfully. "And if I've forgiven you does that mean you've forgiven me?"

"Erm…I'm starting to." Bra replied smiling. "So, erm, do you want to come over?"

"Sure….Bra is something wrong?"

"No," She replied frowning. "Why?"

"Well, don't get mad but I just can't help thinking…is there a catch? I mean you've just told me you've kind of forgiven me and now you're inviting me over. And what about your dad?"

"Well, I want you to come over and my dad's not a problem. We need to talk any how."

"Yeah…what do you mean your dad's not a problem? He wanted to kill me."

"Ah…well, I've moved out." Bra told him proudly.

Silence. "Sorry, you did what?"

"I moved out!"

"But, what if you have the baby?"

"I'll be fine! People do this all the time."

"But something might happen!"

"Are you coming or not Goten?"

"Yes, we'll talk about this though."

She gave him her address and he double checked it.

"Got it?"

"Yep, see you in a minute."

Buh bye!"

"Bye."

Bra pressed the red phone button on her mobile and squealed. Having a new start had made her feel miles better. She was glad she had gotten away from Capsule Corp. She had so many unhappy memories there (and a few good ones). Her dad had become possessed once, there were loads of fights, and Trunks picked on her, the Goten issue….she could list problems for days. She was also glad she had forgiven Goten. Hating him stressed her out and made her miserable.

After a few blissful seconds there came a knock on the door. Bra opened it to find Goten.

"Jesus! Didn't waste much time did you?"

"I flew here," he told her.

"Explains a lot, but what about your promise. You know? No flying unless it's an emergency?"

Goten looked embarrassed. "Well, this is an emergency…erm…what if you changed your mind?"

Bra smiled. "True." She replied simply. "Come in then, it's a bit empty seeing as I only moved in today but…well, it's big…"

Goten looked around the huge living room. He whistled in admiration. "Jeez Bra, when you told me you moved out I didn't expect this. I needn't have worried; it probably has an 'I'm giving birth help' alarm installed!"

Bra laughed. "Probably. Not long now anyway; and knowing you, know that we're friends again you'll be calling every hour."

"Calling?" Goten gasped as if it were the worst possible thing he could do, "hell, I'll move in!" He joked.

"Hmm, not a bad idea," Bra joked back. Things were almost normal, and with no mention of the past it might as well have been. Bra couldn't believe that forgiving him would feel so good. She grinned at him.

"Give me the word and I will," he told her, a little more seriously, but there was still a grin on his face so Bra couldn't be sure if he was being serious or not.

"Will do!" she said brightly, "now, how about a coffee." She paused and watched him. "A real one, so don't be getting any ideas."

"I'm having none what so ever." He said innocently whilst looking behind her back at her bum.

She rolled her eyes and showed him through to the kitchen. Just as Bra had been, he was awe struck.

"Wow! It's all so tidy and clean!" He stared around, eyes as wide as saucers.

She nodded at him before locating two sachets of faux cappuccinos and boiling some water in the shiny kettle sitting on one of the kitchen counters. Goten watched her out of the corner of his eye as she grabbed two mugs and a bag of sugar. She looked as beautiful as always even with her pregnancy bump, slightly messy hair and no make up.

Bra turned around to face him. "Hey Goten…actually, could you maybe move in until the baby's born?"

Goten's heart soared. "Of course," he replied simply. She smiled at him.

"Thanks Goten, but no funny business, k?" She teased.

"Never," he said shaking his head, "so where's the bedroom?"

"Goten!" Bra gasped jokingly, hitting him.

"Sorry, couldn't resist." He looked around the kitchen whilst Bra finished making the coffee. He had a good nosy in all the cupboards. There wasn't much food but it was fully equipped with kitchen utensils and pans. He wondered back down to Bra's end of the kitchen and took his coffee. They sipped at it in silence before Bra spoke up.

"So, we have to talk."

"Yeah, I guess we do."

"Can I start?" Bra asked, before receiving a nod from Goten. "Ok, I'm willing to accept the whole Paris business as an accident, and I'll apologise to her for being horrible. How does that sound?"

"Sounds good, but you don't have to apologise to Paris. She's a lot worse than you are."

"But I want to. It's part of my fresh start."

"If that's what you want…" Goten answered doubtfully. "So, my turn?" Bra nodded. "Right, I'm super sorry about Paris and Belle and I also want to make a fresh start. So, are we friends?"

"Yep, we're friends." Bra replied happily. "Now, let's go and buy furniture!"

- - - - -

_I was going to add more but I decided to leave it like that. This is quite a lame chapter but there'll be more drama in the next couple of chapters. I'm gonna end this soon, but there'll most probably be a sequel._


	5. Chapter 5

_CHAPTER 5 wowie, who would have guessed that I would get this far? Well, for those who didn't, YES, I DID GET THIS FAR! I have done eighteen thousand one hundred and twenty one words (it looks more like that than 18121) but there! HA! I am the best! (Jokes)_

_Phew now I've got THAT off my chest, a big thankies to:_

_**Sunkissed04643**_

_**Gotensgurl97**_

_**Mysterygal02**_

_**Artemis girl 314 **_

_The loyal ones who reviewed more than once (lol) love you all!_

5. Call it the end

After messing around in furniture shops like children for hours, Goten and Bra decided on beds and sofas and other essentials such as plasma screen TVs and 1000 zenie radios and a state of the art computer. Bra hadn't had a fun day out for a long time and she found herself in hysterical giggles more than once for no reason. Goten was also on cloud nine – who would have thought that shopping for a few household items could be so much fun?

They returned to the flat still laughing and messing around. At first Goten had agreed to fly up with the sofa and bed since neither would fit through the door but when he had got to the top floor he realised that he couldn't fit them through the window either. In the end the bed and the sofa had to be completely dismantled and set up again in their places.

"Phew!" Huffed Bra flopping down onto her sofa. "What a day!"

"I'll say," Goten replied, flopping down beside her. "I'm completely…knackered!"

Bra giggled sleepily, "knackered. That's a funny word." She felt as though her brain was mush. She didn't usually do so much in one day and was exhausted. "I think I'm going to have a shower then go to bed."

"What about dinner?" Goten asked hopefully.

"I'm not hungry," Bra replied.

"But I am!" Goten protested.

"Order a pizza or something."

"Fine," Goten said, cheering up.

Bra heaved herself up and staggered exaggeratedly to the bathroom wailing dramatically about her feet being worn down to stumps. She turned on the shower and squealed excitedly to herself about being with Goten. She spent ages in the shower, washing and conditioning her hair. The water made her sleepier than she already was and she decided to change into her pyjamas, rather than staying in stay at home clothes.

Goten was installing the TV while Bra had her shower and when she finally padded out of the bathroom he had managed to set everything up.

"There," he said triumphantly, plugging the last plug into the socket on the wall.

"Well done, Goten!" Bra cheered sarcastically before yawning. "I'm going to bed ok?"

"It's only 8:30!" Goten protested.

"But I'm pregnant!" Bra argued back. "If you're hungry, you can order that pizza. Use my mobile, I kinda forgot to buy a land line."

"Ok," Goten grumbled, still not happy. Bra ignored him and walked back to her room, calling 'night over her shoulder.

Goten looked longingly after her. 'What I would do to be with her tonight,' he thought, sighing. After staring winsomely at where Bra had been for a while Goten hunted for Bra's mobile so that he could shut his stomach up by feeding it. He ordered 30 Pepperoni pizzas, a side of garlic bread, 2 bottles of Pepsi and, as an afterthought, 12 tubs of chocolate ice cream.

- - - - -

Goten woke up late the next day. He groaned as he sat up. He had overestimated his hunger and had put on 'a little' weight. Around him were thirty greasy pizza boxes with congealed cheese stuck to them, 12 ice cream tubs with melted left over ice cream and a half empty bottle of Pepsi. He had fallen asleep on the sofa with bad indigestion and bloating and now as well as being bloated and sick, he had a sore neck.

Eventually he found the strength to sit up and try to clean up a bit. As he sat up he noticed that he had spilt Pepsi on Bra's brand new sofa. He quickly covered it with a cushion. He heaved himself up heavily and tried to bend down to pick up the boxes. He found that it was very difficult because of his huge belly.

"Shit!" he cursed loudly.

"Goten? Are you awake already? It's only 10:30, that's early." Bra called from her room.

"Oh ha ha Bra." Goten replied as normally as he could, whilst trying twice as hard to pick up his rubbish. Eventually he had collected the boxes and some of the ice cream tubs. He ran as fast as he could into the kitchen and dumped them into the bin before sprinting back to pick up the rest of the tubs and the bottle. He threw the last of the tubs in the bin and dumped the Pepsi in the fridge in the knickers of time. Bra left her room to see what he was doing and the only mess she saw was a couple of crumbs on the floor. Goten heaved a sigh of relief.

"Goten?" Bra called curiously, wondering where he was.

"I'm in the kitchen." He replied.

Bra joined him in the kitchen and looked around suspiciously. "Why are you out of breath?" She asked.

"I'm not." He replied quickly, trying to calm his breathing.

"What have you done?" She asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Nothing! I promise."

"Hmm," she said disbelievingly. "How much pizza did you have?"

"Not many," Goten replied, not looking her in the eye.

"Tell me exactly how many."

"Erm…thirty." He mumbled. "Plus twelve tubs of ice cream and two bottles or Pepsi."

"Jesus Goten! Bloody hell! How much was it?"

"Just about 200 Zenie." He told her shamefully.

She rolled her eyes but didn't get mad. She smiled at him. "You know, I was really scared that you might have changed from when we were together, but you're still the same old Goten."

"Gee, thanks," Goten replied. He checked his watch and cleared his throat. "Erm…Bra…don't get mad or anything, but erm, I have to go and see Belle and Paris today around two. Paris is going home from the hospital and wanted help."

Bra felt fury bubbling inside her but immediately squashed it down and plastered a huge bright smile on her face. "Sure, you can go."

"Thanks Bra, for not being mad at me."

"I'm coming with you." She added.

"What?"

"To apologise," Bra explained.

Goten thought desperately for a suitable reason why Bra should not come, but could not come up with one that would not offend the Saiyan princess. He sighed at the hopelessness of the situation before saying: "Fine, but please be as nice to her as you possibly can."

"I'm not scheming anything." Bra replied quietly.

"I know Bra, I'm not accusing you," Goten lied.

"Yes you are," Bra replied, smiling. "Don't try lying to me, it won't work. Stop worrying, I'm not going to do anything except apologise, and then I'll go home. I promise."

Goten obviously wasn't happy with the idea but he shrugged helplessly. "Bra, it's really not a good idea but if you really want to apologise, be my guest."

Bra smiled him and tip toed up to kiss him on the cheek the way she had when she was a child and her mum had made her kiss everyone before she went to bed. Goten reddened and scratched the back of his head shyly. Bra grinned more broadly before prancing childishly to her room to get dressed.

While Bra got ready Goten wandered around the swimming pool, staring at it longingly. He vowed that straight after he had seen Paris he would pack his bags for his stay at Bra's and go swimming as soon as he got back. Although he let his mind wandered over many subjects as he waited for Bra, a little voice in his head kept reminding him of all the bad things that could happen with Bra and Paris. He grew butterflies in his stomach of apprehension and his wander around the pool became pacing.

Bra meanwhile was hunting through her boxes of clothes that were yet to be unpacked for something other than her normal maternity uniform of grey track pants and a baggy t shirt. Eventually she unearthed a sky blue v-neck that her mum had bought her a couple of weeks back. She had been sick of Bra's dullness and had gone out to find the nicest maternity top she could. Bra thanked her mum in her head before pulling the top over her head. Now for trousers, Bra thought, digging through her boxes once again. A miracle was granted in the form of a baggy pair of jeans, which Bra pulled on happily. Bra chose her nicest kitten heels to wear, put on her make up and for the first time in a long time, styled her hair.

"Damn you!" She joked to her bump, "You make me look so hideously overweight!"

"Ha! As if you could ever look hideously anything," Goten said from the doorway.

"Oi! I could have been changing mister!" Bra scolded.

"It's not as if I haven't seen it all before," Goten replied innocently.

"HEY!" Bra protested.

"I didn't mean it like that…I meant when you were a kid and you used to run around your house naked!" Goten told her.

"I didn't do that!" Bra shrieked, flushing crimson.

"You did! I remember it exactly!" Goten teased. "You were five and I was thirteen. You were quite the exhibitionist."

"YOU PERV! I WAS ONLY FIVE!" Bra shrieked even more.

"I wasn't looking at you… in that way. It was just you being a kid!" Goten replied, going red himself.

"Whatever," Bra said normally; happy she had regained the upper hand.

"It's true," Goten insisted. "You know I only started seeing you like that when you turned twenty."

"Ooh, that long ago?" Bra replied questioningly. "Weren't you hooked on Paris?"

"I think I was kidding myself that I was but secretly liked you the whole time," Goten said absently, thinking it over in his head.

"Wow…that was four years ago…thank God you didn't act quicker, or I could've been a mum already!" Bra joked feebly.

"It would have saved you a lot of breath…" Goten replied.

"How do you mean?"

Goten grinned. "Well, you kept sighing every time you saw me for one…"

Bra blasted him with weak ki to shut him up blushing furiously.

"Hey! That's not very nice Bra Briefs!" He gasped, grabbing her wrists as she aimed at him, ready to blast him again. He gently wrestled her onto the bed. "Promise you'll never resort to violence to get your way ever again."

"FINE! I PROMISE!" Bra shrieked, but as soon as Goten released her she shot a ki blast at him.

"OI!" He protested before grabbing her and carrying her to the pool. He held her over the water.

"Let go! Let go!" Bra screamed, "Mercy!" Goten laughed at her squirming. Then she screamed. "The baby's being born." Goten quickly put her back on the ground.

"Ha!" She laughed triumphantly before waddle-running back to her room. Goten grinned after her before chasing after her again.

- - - - -

They continued their game until they remembered they were meant to be seeing Paris and hastily left. Bra couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that it had ended so soon. She liked having an excuse to get close to him again and the play fighting caused a strange thrill for her. Goten felt the same. In the lift down to the ground floor the atmosphere was slightly awkward as the two tried not to look at each other. Bra shifted her weight from foot to foot and Goten cleared his throat a couple of times.

Eventually the lift stopped and someone got on. Luckily the woman was very loud and enjoyed talking to people. After heaving about a thousand bags into the lift she smiled at Bra and Goten.

"You two must be the rich ones that moved into the penthouse suite. It's lovely to see such a great family, you know, the type that can support themselves, don't argue and are totally ready for all the trouble of kids. I have three kids. Three little girls. They're angels, but they're also a handful. You're rather young aren't you? I'm Mariko by the way."

Goten stared at her absently so Bra took over the situation. "My name's Bra, as in Bra Briefs, and this is Goten. He's my flat mate."

"And her baby's dad!" Goten added quickly when Bra failed to mention it.

"You're not married?" The woman asked, seeming shocked.

God, what a nosy woman, Bra thought before answering with a polite no.

"Partners?" She asked.

"Nope, just friends." Bra answered but at the same time she took Goten's hand and laced her fingers through his. Mariko stared at this but didn't comment on it.

They reached the ground floor and Mariko said goodbye to them as she made her way down to the car park below. As soon as the lift indicated that it was in the car park Bra burst out laughing. "We sure confused her!" she laughed, but she didn't let go of Goten's hand. Goten blushed at her slight affection, he had dismissed it in the lift as a joke to the nosy woman but now he was sure it meant a little more.

"What's wrong Goten?" Bra asked, tugging at his hand.

"Nothing, I was just thinking…" he replied blushing harder.

Bra looked at the hand she was holding. "You're bothered because I'm holding your hand? How pathetic!" She laughed at him. "Come on you little sad ass, let's go get Paris!"

Goten smiled inwardly as he allowed himself to be dragged along by Bra. I guess you could call this the end of our argument, he though happily.

_Cheers to the shortest chapter! It's another filler, and there'll probably be another one for next chapter too…woohoo! Reviews are greatly enjoyed, so keep it up my friends. XxxxxxxX_


	6. Chapter 6

_Ah! This is the life! I have six whole weeks to write every damn day without exams/coursework/homework and lesbians stalking me. (My life sounds disgustingly random I know…look at my profile if you want to understand more). **iTunes and Gnarls Barkley are my saviours! ** I'm so happy that people are still reviewing and reading my story, but just to let you know, this story could be reaching it's end at any point and just you wait until chapters 7, 8 and 9…COR BLIMEY: Hint: There may be a LEMON! Or perhaps a lime…but whatever…I'm not 100 percent sure yet! Tell me if you want one!_

_Thankies again to: _

_**Sunkissed04643**_

_**Gotensgurl97**_

_**Mysterygal02**_

_**Artemis girl 314 **_

_**LunaBela**_

_Who must be following this story very well!_

_A certain spandex clad spider really loves you!_

6. Before Dinner (BD)

Goten and Bra drove to the hospital to pick up Paris and on the way Bra had called Pan to tell her that she had made amends with Goten and things were pretty much back to normal. She had also invited her and her parents to dinner at the new apartment. Pan had been very surprised to hear that her daddy's girl, spoilt brat, rich best friend had upped and moved out. Pan had always pictured her friend to stick with her parents even if she got married.

Goten had been grinning inanely as he listened to Bra's conversation. 'Things being back to normal' always involved a bit of romance or flirting, whether it was serious or jokey. Pan had noted that Bra's tone of voice seemed very happy. She couldn't wait to see the couple that had argued for five months and made up in a very weird three days. It's gotta be love, Pan thought after she had said her goodbyes to Bra and hung up.

"Hey Goten," Bra started after she had hung up, "Why don't you invite Paris over for dinner too?"

"What?" Goten spluttered.

"As a friendly gesture."

"No, Bra, can you just apologise today?"

"Fine, but one day?" Bra asked, looking at him with puppy dog eyes. Unfortunately he was looking at the road so he missed her beseeching look.

"Maybe," he replied vaguely.

Bra pouted slightly and stared out of the window at the passing cars. She felt slightly pushed out by Goten's firmness about her not seeing Paris. Some paranoia came back to her. Was there a thing still going on between him and her? Then she brushed the thought away and leaned her head tiredly on the car window and closed her eyes. She was quite tired. She had been restless all night. Placing one hand on her bump she fell asleep.

Noting her silence about ten minutes later Goten glanced over her and saw that she had fallen asleep. She looked so peaceful but he could tell how stressful her pregnancy had been by the slightly hassled look that remained on her face. She looked way older than 24 too, almost 30. And it's down to me, Goten thought sadly, deciding that he'd make sure she ended up looking her age again. If he could make her look older, then surely he could make her look younger? Right?

He drove on thinking of ways to make her happy again. He could be a bit less adamant about her not seeing Paris for one. Who knows? He thought, they might even become friends. Also, he could take her out. She loved a night out, and he guessed that she hadn't been out for a long time. He could also be more helpful, he though. Instead of spilling Pepsi on her brand new couch he added guiltily to himself.

The traffic was heavy on the way to the hospital so when Bra woke up an hour later she was surprised to see that they were still in the car.

"Where are we?" She asked sleepily.

"Still on the way to the hospital," Goten told her.

"Oh," she replied tiredly.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm just tried; I didn't sleep well last night."

"Why not? Is it the new bed?"

"No, I think it's just the pregnancy, or maybe it's just how my body reacted to all the changes, like you moving in until the baby's born and moving house. All that."

"Well you can always check it out at the hospital, since we're going there."

"I'm fine worry guts; one night of bad sleep isn't serious. I'm sure I'm fine." She smiled reassuringly at him and leaned over to kiss him lightly on the cheek. "Trust me; there are no problems with the little one. He kicks like his daddy."

"He?" Goten asked curiously.

Bra blushed. "Well, everyone thinks it's a boy."

"Why?"

"Because he kicks all the time, like I said, and girls are less violent."

"What about Pan?" Goten pointed out.

"She's the exception, but even she has her girly moments."

"Like when she's around Trunks?" Goten asked, grinning.

"You noticed too huh?"

"It's so obvious it wouldn't be any easier to spot if you had a flashing neon sign pointing it out."

"Try telling that to Pan." Bra replied dryly. "It's getting a bit boring. Marron's already sick of it; she wants to make a move on Trunks."

Goten rolled his eyes. "God you girls are so complicated…I heard there was something called girl code where you couldn't go out with someone if your mate liked them."

"Yeah, something along those lines. But Marron is conniving and she hasn't got any real friends. She's one of those fakes."

"Really? She seemed so innocent whenever I babysat for Krillin and 18."

"What can I say?" Bra shrugged. "People change. Anyway, when _were_ you baby-sitting? She's seven years younger than you right?"

"Yeah, you have a point." Goten sighed. "God, I hate changes."

"Ditto. What happened to us innocent kids?" Bra asked.

Goten grinned. "Us? Innocent? As if. If we weren't destroying your dad's GR then we were sneaking off to annoy others. Those were the good old days."

"Yep!" Bra replied enthusiastically, her attitude completely changing. Soon she and Goten had started a stream of stories of their childhood that lasted until they got to the hospital.

- - - - -

Bra and Goten made their way together to Paris' room. Goten entered the room first to tell her about Bra wanting to apologise. Meanwhile Bra leaned against the wall outside and waited impatiently, tapping her foot. She was tempted to eavesdrop but out of respect for Goten she decided not to. Instead she planned what she would say. She didn't plan for long though, because she got bored after _"Paris,"_. Yawning, she peered through the window of the door through which Goten and Paris were. They were talking and Paris looked furious. Bra rolled her eyes and sighed. She'd been waiting for five minutes.

Inside Goten was arguing with Paris and trying very hard to keep his temper.

"Paris, give her a chance, _please_."

"Why should I? She came in here two days ago calling me a slut and screaming. I don't want that mad woman anywhere near Belle and me."

"She wants to apologise."

"Yeah, right. All she wants is to suck up to you so that I get jealous. She's welcome to you. Tell her."

"Tell her yourself when you talk to her."

"I'm _not_ going to talk to her."

Goten counted to ten slowly before coming up with an idea. "Well, you can get yourself home then. If you don't want to talk to her then I'll doubt you'll want to share a car with her."

"What? She's here?" Paris hissed. "Why the hell did you bring her here?"

"To apologise."

"Fine!" Paris gave in. "I'll let her apologise but I'm not sharing a car with her."

"Deal," Goten lied, knowing very well he was not going to drive Bra home and come back to pick up Paris or let Bra go home by herself. "I'll just get her."

He left the room and found Bra slouched against the door grumpily making a small crater in the hospital floor. When she saw him she grinned and got to her feet. "She's letting me apologise?" She asked.

"Yeah, in you go." Goten replied holding the door open for her.

Bra walked past him into the room and grinned broadly at Paris. "Hello," she said politely. "How are you?"

"Get to the point," Paris replied icily. Bra only smiled.

"Well Paris, I'm here to set the record straight. I want to apologise for being rude to you when you visited me ages ago, I want to apologise for my appalling behaviour when Belle was born and I want to apologise for hurting your feelings."

"You didn't hurt my feelings!" Paris said in outrage. "I don't give a damn what you think of me!"

"Well, I'm sorry all the same. Peace?" She asked sweetly, offering her hand to Paris.

"Fine. Peace." Paris grumbled, shaking Bra's hand. She was lying of course. She would make bitchy comments in front of him, knowing that with this 'peace' contract, she wouldn't do anything back.

- - - - -

When they were finally given their permission to leave the hospital and go to the car, Paris immediately felt the urge to annoy Bra. She waited until Bra had sat in the front seat before saying that it would be better if she sat up front and Bra sat at the back with Belle.

"Think of it as practice for when your little one comes along!" Paris said in a tinkling voice.

Bra obliged without fuss. Sitting at the back had its compensations, such as more room to lie down. She would have liked to sprawl out across the seat as she would in her own bed but couldn't, because of Belle's commodious baby seat. Bra thanked the gods that she was small and curled up quite comfortably under Belle's watchful glare. Due to quick development in Saiyans, Belle already looked like a month old baby.

"You're exactly like your mother," Bra remarked conversationally to Belle.

Belle frowned even more and began to cry.

"What the hell have you done?" Paris snapped accusingly as she whipped round to look at her daughter.

"Nothing," Bra answered truthfully, "I just told her she was like her mother." It took a lot of will power for her not to add "which is probably why she's crying".

As Paris shushed Belle from the front seat Bra caught Goten wincing at the piercing cries coming from his daughter. 'Ha,' Bra thought, 'I bet he thought fatherhood was all pushing buggies and buying presents. Stupid fool.' She meant this most affectionately of course. She turned her attention back to the baby and sighing she took Belle out of the seat and passed her to Paris.

"Do you want to swap places?" Bra asked sweetly.

"No, she'll be fine in a second." Paris replied bluntly.

Paris, however, was wrong. Belle did not quieten down and half an hour later _Goten_ was on the verge of tears and Paris was almost tearing her hair out. Bra was royally pissed off by the wails and was doubly pissed off with Paris, who was completely incapable of looking after her own baby.

"Feed her for pity's sake!" Bra growled, "you haven't tried that!"

"I am not showing my BOOBS to the whole fucking motorway!"

"Oh, charming! Swearing in front of your precious child! Paris, No. One. Is. Looking."

"Of course they are, everyone's a pervert or a paedophile these days." And it went on like that until Paris grudgingly agreed that doing it in a toilet where no one could see. To Bra's dismay, when they arrived at a petrol station, she was dragged along with Paris.

"Paris, why the hell did you bring me with you?"

"You really think I'm going to sit in here feeding Belle while you two make out?" Paris replied, fumbling with her top.

Bra snorted. "You're welcome to him. I guess it didn't affect you as much as it affected me when I found out that he'd got someone else pregnant."

Paris wasn't listening but was staring disgustedly down at the baby at her chest. "This is so gross!" She moaned. Bra looked briefly and tried to imagine herself doing it. She couldn't and found her self seeking advice from the enemy.

"Is it really that gross? Most people like it."

"It's truly gross," Paris answered, "but the mumsy people like it. They coo about bonding and a load of other crap but Belle and I have bonded already and it wasn't through breast feeding. But as you know I am _not_ mumsy, I didn't even want to have children. Imagine how fat I'm going to get and I'll never get to go out ever again." Paris paused and narrowed her eyes at Bra. "Don't get me wrong though, I love Belle, so don't go telling Goten otherwise."

"Wasn't planning to," Bra answered truthfully as she worried about her own baby.

"Good, forgive me for being so suspicious," she said fakely, "but you look like one of those scheming shits but, I guess appearances can be deceptive."

Finally Belle was full (she'd inherited the Saiyan appetite, it seemed) and she Bra and Paris returned to the car. Paris handed Belle over to Bra who strapped her into her seat and curled up once again, wanting to make up for her night of bad sleep.

A while later Bra was shaken awake by Goten.

"Wake up Bra," he said, "we're at Paris' house."

Bra yawned and sat up.

"Carry me," she ordered sleepily.

"What?" Goten asked, not sure he had heard correctly.

"Give me a piggyback or something," she mumbled.

Goten, although puzzled, bent down and let her climb onto his back. She rested her head on his shoulder.

"I'm so tired," she whispered.

He carried her into Paris' house. Paris glared at Bra , who missed it completely. She was already fast asleep.

"Goten," Paris said coolly, "perhaps Bra should go to her house and sleep. This can't be good for her."

"What about you?"

"I'll manage until you come back," Paris said sweetly. "You can fly right?"

"Only in emergencies," Goten said doubtfully.

"This is one!" Paris urged. "Think of Bra and her baby!" She managed to conjure up a vaguely concerned expression. Luckily Goten bought it and told her he would be back soon. He went out into Paris' back yard and took off from there, flying above the clouds to stay out of view. He flew onto her balcony praying that she had for some reason left the balcony door open. She hadn't, he found out as he tried to shake the door open. He briefly contemplated breaking the door down but decided it would not get him into Bra's good books, so he did what he thought was best. He lay Bra gently down on the cold balcony floor and jumped down to the street below, landing unhurt, of course, unconcerned that he had jumped from about 60 metres above, startling various passers-by, creating a crater and bursting a water pipe.

He grinned sheepishly at the people around him. "Sorry about that," he said meekly, before running to the building and running up the flight of stairs to the top floor. He opened the door with Bra's key, unlocked the balcony door. Bra was still sleeping. Sighing with relief, he picked her up and carried her bridal style to her room. He set her down on her bed and then rooted through her wardrobe for a blanket and found one. He tucked it around it and made to leave, but then he felt bad. He stuck with Paris when she was pregnant, Bra was a priority now. Guiltily he turned around and placed his lips to her forehead by way of apology. Bra stirred and mumbled something along the lines of 'stop taking advantage'. He grinned at her, it seemed so Vegeta like – always on the alert.

As Goten stood there grinning like a fool, Bra's eyes fluttered open.

"Why am I at home?" she asked.

"Because you were tired and Paris said that if you didn't sleep the baby would get hurt."

"Oh for pity's sake! I'm fine and she knows it! It's quite normal for pregnant ladies to get tired later on in pregnancy. If I wasn't well I wouldn't be having this dinner."

"Ok Bra," said Goten, raising his hands, " but, now that you mention it, why don't you postpone this dinner and we spend this evening sinning?"

"OI!" Bra grinned, "Clear off with your sins. Honestly!"

"Stop having dirty thoughts Bra," Goten reprimanded, "I meant that we should order a take away and spend the evening vegging out in front of the TV."

"Ah, yes, the sin of vegging. I believe it's the 11th commandment – 'Thou shalt not order take aways and spend the evening vegging in front of the TV'." Bra said sarcastically. "I'm tempted honey, but I really want to see Pan and my parents. Last time I saw Pan we didn't leave on the best of terms. That's your fault."

"Oh, no worries, everything's my fault. A valuable lesson well learnt from the teacher Gohan. When we were younger he used to blame me for everything. I didn't mind though, I worshipped him."

"Aww, cute. I wish I could have seen you as a kid. This age thing is such a problem."

"No way Bra! I love being so old and having a younger woman. It makes me feel like a pimp."

"Piss off Goten! Run off to your younger woman, Paris." She said with disgust.

"Lovely to know I disgust you so much. Well, your wish is my command princess of Saiyans, I will return to Paris."

And with a sweeping bow, Goten left the room singing God Save the Queen.

Bra lay back down and reached for her mobile. She'd left it in her handbag when she went to the hospital and Goten had helpfully left it on her bedside table. She dialled her mum's number and it rang for a long while before a livid Bulma answered.

"What is it you pathetic imbecile? Need help finding the checkout?"

"Hi mum," Bra said, stifling her giggles.

"BRA! Sweetie, how are you? What is it? Are you having the baby?"

"No mum, I'm fine, I just wanted to talk."

"Oh, erm, ok."

"Who did you think I was when you picked up?"

"Oh, I sent your father shopping. Oh Bra, you won't believe it! He's with Goku. He went over there and made him go with him. Chi Chi called earlier in stitches."

"Oh dear, dad and shopping…not a good combination. How on earth did you get him to go?"

"Oh, that was the easy part. I threatened to dismantle the GR. He'll do anything I ask anyway. I just use threats to make him believe he's not becoming sofer, which he is."

"Don't let him hear you say that," Bra warned, before moving on to her own gossip. "You'll never guess what!"

"What won't I guess?" Bulma asked, "Something about Goten moving in with you?"

"How did you know?"

"Radio Pan is switched on here at CC 24/7. You know everything going on within a 20 mile radius with her around. Her crush on Trunks is really useful. She's good for emailing too."

"Emailing? Care to share?"

"Well, it's like this, you tell her to give Videl a message and she's there and back in two minutes with the reply."

"Wow. Well, I guess you heard about my dinner then?"

"Oh yes, we'd all love to come. I've got loads of furniture for you and pregnancy and baby books too. I found loads of my old stuff."

"Thanks mum."

"No problem sweetie."

"Actually, could you do me a favour? Could you ask Pan to bring enough mince meat, chopped tomatoes and Tabasco sauce for seven Saiyans?"

"Making Chilli con carne?"

"Yep, you know it's the only thing I can cook."

"Sure do, but you're doing a lot better then I am. I have to go now sweetie, I'll see you later and your dad secretly send his love and misses you."

"Bye mum!"

"Bye Bra, see you later."

Bra hung up and heaved herself out of bed. Time to get cracking. She began by folding her blanket and returning it to it's home, then she smoothed out her duvet and looked at her bare bedroom critically. It was too empty, she concluded, and paused to think about what to do about the situation, and after a few seconds inspiration hit her. The boxes containing her millions of perfumes and beauty products. She could empty them out onto her chest of drawers. She did so and was happy until she noticed the lack of electronics. Being the daughter of a technology freak was tough. She would have to go out and buy a radio and a couple of televisions. She checked her mobile for the time. **17:47**, it read.

"Shit!" she cursed. "Shit, shit, shit, shit!" She grabbed her handbag and ran out of her room, thinking desperately. She had 13 minutes to get out of the house and to an electronics store. She couldn't fly, not with the baby.

"Shit!" She repeated. There was nothing else for it. She would have to fly. There was no way in hell that her mum could see her living in an empty house. She ran onto her balcony and took off and shot off to the main shopping part of town and after five minutes of furious flying she found herself in front of a nondescript electronics store – _OPEN TIL 10. _That's what the neon green words on one of the windows said.

"Oh, Jesus Christ!" Bra almost wept. None the less, an electronics store was an electronics store and she walked in and pounced on the nearest shopping assistant.

"Hi," she said brightly, looking for the assistant's name badge, "Randall, could you help me. I need a top of the range TV, Radio, alarm clock and telephone. Money no object."

The assistant blinked at her for a couple of seconds before nodding and leading her off to the back of the store. Bra couldn't help but dislike the store. It was seedy and cheap, not at all her style, and she noticed with disgust that Randall had greasy hair. She suppressed a shudder.

- - - - -

Twenty minutes later, Bra was the store's biggest fan. She had bought two surprisingly nice TVs, an alarm clock stereo, two portable phones and a tacky pink CD player which had appealed to her because of it's colour. Also, Randall, despite his hideousness, had proved himself worthy of small talk from Bra and a generous tip.

"Thanks so much Randall! You're a life saver!" She called as she pranced out of the store carrying all her boxes.

When she was out of sight she took off into the air and flew back leisurely back to her apartment. Unfortunately, flying through the clouds reminded her of times when she was younger when she used to go flying with her brother. Those were times when love to her was a fairy tale. Handsome prince rescued beautiful Princess Bra and they lived happily ever after. If only it was that simple. Sighing, she shook herself out of the past and into the present and sped home. She still had to make dinner and set everything up.

When she got home she dumped everything on the couch and zipped into the kitchen. Her wonderful kitchen. She basked in it's un-emptiness and sighed blissfully. She turned on the stove and set a huge pan she'd stolen from Capsule Corp. on it. She filled the kettle with boiling water and started on the tedious job of filling the pan. She managed to stick it out and eventually the pan was full. She promptly poured in 15 bags of rice. God she could kill for a maid, to cook and clean and do whatever Bra didn't want to do. Thank God that Chilli con Carne was a simple dish.

She then moved on to plug the phones, radios etc in. She went upstairs to plug in the first phone. God, she thought, it's bare up here. Still, she could fill it up with her mum's furniture. It proved too difficult to plug the phone in so Bra gave up and plugged in the television in. It too was too hard so she simply left it. Goten could do it. She went back downstairs and set the alarm clock on her bedside table and the television and pink stereo on her chest of drawers without bothering to plug them in. The room looked much better. A different wall colour, some curtains and a lamp wouldn't go amiss, but it looked much homier. Then she remembered the rice and ran back into the kitchen to rescue it.

She took the pan off the hob and drained the rice and put it in a bowl, ready for later. Now, where was Pan? As if on cue, the doorbell rang. Bra went to the door as quickly as she could. Opening the door she found a…strangely girly Pan. She was wearing a form fitting pink vest top, jean and pink kitten heels.

"Pan! Look at you!" Bra said in awe. "You look so pretty! You didn't have to dress up, it's just so you can see my house."

"I know, but what's the harm in dressing up?"

"Nothing, you look gorgeous!" Bra replied. "Now come in and help me cook. Oh Pan, I'm so jealous! Maternity clothes are completely gross. Can we do the food quickly so you can help me find something pretty to wear, or at least do my hair."

"Erm, sure," Pan replied, stepping into the flat. "Wow! Nice place! But…why is it so empty?"

"I didn't really bring anything with me. This is the stuff Goten and I bought." She looked around at the room.

"Ok, so…where _is_ my uncle?"

"He's with Paris and her brat."

"Woo! Go Vegeta!" Pan joked. "Come on Bra, call me something too!"

"Knock it off Pan!" Bra laughed. "I hate that woman so much though. She called me a scheming shit!"

"Uh oh," Pan said, biting her lip, "Bra…what did you do and where exactly is Paris?"

"I did nothing and she's at home."

"Thank God. I thought you'd done something terrible. But why did you let her get away with it?"

"I don't really know. I apologised to her and I even held Belle today. I guess I just wanted to keep the peace." Bra shrugged.

"Right. Peace. Bra, don't panic, but I think you've been possessed."

"_I've_ been possessed? What about you?"

"Ok, point taken."

"Good. Now let's get cooking!"

Bra lugged the mince meat into the kitchen and started frying it. Pan sat on a kitchen stool and looked around the kitchen.

"It's nice. The kitchen, I mean."

"Thanks, it's my relaxation room."

"Why? You hate cooking."

"Well, because it's not empty, so I don't have to think of buying anything."

"Ah," Pan nodded. "Do you want the Tabasco?"

"Yep, pass it over. So, Pan, a little bird told me you've been living at CC."

"Yeah, I have."

"Why?"

"Well, I went to see you, but you weren't there."

"Didn't my mum tell you where to go?"

"Well, yeah, but I thought that she could use a girl around the house."

"My dad hates you." Bra pointed out.

"Nah," she replied dismissively, "he needs a girl around as much as your mum does."

"And Trunks?"

"What about him? He likes sparring with me."

"Is that all?"

"Yes, that's all."

"Trunks is coming later."

"I know."

"Is that why you're dressed up?"

"No."

"Ok then," Bra said, and carried on cooking, adding kidney beans and the chopped tomatoes to the meat then she left it to boil for a bit.

"Now," she said, "since you've gone all girly and found your fashion sense you can help me pick out an outfit." She then led Pan to her room.

As soon as Pan stepped into the room she knew she was in Bra territory. Everything was Bra like and there was all the necessary furniture and an ensuite bathroom. Bra flung open the wardrobe door.

"Ok," Bra began, adopting an air hostess voice. "On the left you'll find my skinny clothes, so please don't look at them, along the bottom of the wardrobe you'll see my shoes, but don't worry about them, I'm wearing my favourite ones already and to the right are my fabulous maternity clothes. There is a selection of track pants and t shirts, all in different lovely shades of grey." She paused and peered into the sea of grey. "Oh, and I believe a hideous floral dress has made its way in there too. Now, work your new magic."

"I think you should wear what you've got on," Pan said quickly.

Bra laughed. "Yeah, me too. I'll just curl my hair and put on some make up."

- - - - -

At quarter to seven there came a knock at the door. A knock.

"You know at times like this I wonder what the hell doorbells are for. I bet it's Goten. What an idiot." Bra said to Pan from wear they were sitting in the kitchen.

"Ooh! Can I answer?"

"Knock yourself out."

Pan scrambled off the stool and ran to the door. It wasn't Goten. It was Trunks.

"Hi Pan!"

"Hi, come in, you're early."

"Yo Goten!" Bra hollered from the kitchen. "Get your ass upstairs and install that goddamn phone or you're not getting fed."

Trunks rolled his eyes and grinned at Pan. "Let's go and shut her up," he whispered and they crept into the kitchen.

"Do it yourself you lazy shit!" he said once he was in the kitchen.

She turned around in surprise. "Trunks!" she squealed, jumping up and hugging him tightly. "Don't ever move out, I hate it! It's horrible!" He looked down at her. She was crying.

"Hey, don't cry, you can always move back in with us."

"Never!" She replied. "I love having my own home. I wouldn't swap it for the whole world!" And with that she buried her head into his stomach and sobbed.

"You'd think she hadn't seen me for four years, not four days." He said to Pan. As he patted Bra on the head. "Come on Bra, stop crying, you don't want dad to see you crying. Anyway, you'll get puffy eyes."

Bra sniffed and looked up at him. "Are my eyes puffy?" she asked in a small voice.

"Nope…they're erm…beautiful?" he chanced.

Bra smiled broadly and let go of him.

"So what do you think of my place?"

"Cool, great, brilliant. Whatever you want Bra. Bit empty though."

"Why does everybody say that?" Bra moaned. Trunks shrugged.

"Where's Goten?"

"With Paris. Oh yeah, and you and dad had better behave, ok?"

"For you baby sister, anything, but dear daddy won't be easy to persuade."

"Sure he will, I'll hug him."

Trunks gave her thumbs up. "Good plan." Then he turned to Pan. "What's up Pan? You're quiet."

"Nothing, just didn't want to butt into the family reunion."

Bra coughed loudly and Pan blushed. Trunks frowned in confusion at Bra and then spoke to Pan again.

"You look really nice, I've never seen you out of your gi."

Bra began to hum 'why do birds suddenly appear' and this time both Trunks and Pan blushed.

"You two are so adorable, you know that?" Bra said happily, "now what can I get you? Water? Milk? Juice? Pepsi? Champagne? Wine?"

Pan and Trunks 'ordered' their drinks and Bra bustled off to get them and set the table. When the doorbell rang Bra sent Pan to answer it with the excuse of being too busy. She prayed for it to be Goten but instead got Gohan and Videl. God, Bra thought, I haven't sent hose two for eons. She felt shy all of a sudden, an alien word in Bra's vocabulary. She was going to have these people's niece or nephew.

_YAY! A LONG CHAPTER! This was originally meant to be twice as long but I've split it into two chappys, BD AND AD. Before and after dinner. You'll see why later… wow! Yay! More fun for everyone! Enjoy it, because it took a lot of will power to type it out! And luckily for you the part 2 will be out quite soon…I hope! xx_


	7. Chapter 7

_AAHHH! Part 2 of the dinner. Jesus this is getting to be a workout. Expect comedy and disaster. Wow! Chapter 7! How far I've got. Nearly the end now! This has taken me 7 months so far! I do hope it's appreciated, I do like Bra Goten fics and I hope I'm inspiring people here because I need to read MORE! LOL, well, until the end of the chapter...I'll see you there!_

_Thanks to everyone reviewing! I do love you EVER so much! Xx_

_p.s. I have figured out how to allow anon. reviews so anyone who wanted to and couldn't; now you can! _

7. After Dinner (AD)

"Oh, erm, hi Gohan, Videl, how are you?" She asked in the politest voice she could muster, whilst self consciously ruffling her curls.

"Hi Bra, we're good," Gohan answered, and they all air kissed. It's oddly formal, Bra thought to herself. Thankfully Pan and Trunks sensed the awkward atmosphere and took over while Bra retreated to the kitchen to put the food in the oven to keep it warm. After shoving the food into the oven she leaned heavily on the counter and took a deep breath. She felt funny; she needed Goten to help her out. Where was he? She poured herself a glass of water and returned to the living room.

"So, can I get you anything to drink Gohan, Videl?" She asked in a stagy voice.

"I'm ok, thanks Bra," Videl replied, smiling at the younger woman.

"I'm fine too," Gohan told her, winking.

Paranoid thoughts ran through Bra's mind. What was going on with her? She felt as if everyone was ganging up on her. Where was her family? She caught Trunks' eye and he immediately walked over to her and put his arm around her. "What's up?" he whispered, as Pan and her parents spoke.

"Do you think they hate me Trunks? For being horrible to Goten?"

"He's the horrible one," Trunks said immediately, glaring.

"They're acting too formal, we all used to chat rubbish and now it's all air kisses and politely refusing drinks. And where the hell is Goten?"

"Do you want me to get him?" Trunks asked.

"No, you can't leave me here by myself," Bra replied sacredly, clutching his arm.

"You've got Pan." He pointed out.

"She's their daughter!"

"Ok, Ok, go and call mum and dad, I'll hold fort."

Bra nodded and discreetly withdrew to her room. She texted her mum telling her to come as soon as possible and then called Goten. It rang for ages and then finally clicked onto voice mail.

"Hi, Goten it's Bra. Could you come quickly? It's nearly 8 and if you don't get your ass here quickly I will kill you. Bye!"

She sunk down onto her bed. Hopefully her parents would arrive early so she would stop feeling like the stranger in her own home. She sighed and pushed her hair out of her face and braced herself to rejoin the crowd. She pasted a social smile on her face and inspected herself in the mirror before leaving the safe sanctuary of her room.

"Sorry about that, I just had to make a few phone calls," She said to everyone. "My parents will be here soon."

Everyone nodded and a brief silence descended on the group before Videl asked when the baby was due.

"Oh, quite soon actually, in about a month," Bra said cheerfully.

"Do you know whether it's a boy or a girl?" Videl asked.

"No, I wanted it to be a surprise, did you know about Pan?"

"No, but I had this feeling she would be a girl."

"Wow, I get this feeling that my baby's going to be a boy!" Bra said enthusiastically, finally getting into the swing of socialising with the Son crowd.

And from then on she and Videl talked more about babies. After all, Bra had said, they were both having a Son's child, and Pan would be her niece if she and Goten got married, and Videl would be Bra's baby's aunt. They conversed for a good fifteen minutes and would have gone on for longer if the doorbell hadn't rung. Bra excused herself and went to open the door. Please be Goten, she prayed.

She opened the door to….8 chairs?

She looked around. The lift was on the 12th floor. Then she twigged it. The furniture her mum was bringing. The rest of it was probably downstairs. She put a chair in front of the door to keep it open and picked up another and carried it inside.

"Trunks, Pan, can you help me please?" She asked as she made her way upstairs.

Everyone in the room picked up a chair or two and followed her. Bra left the chairs in any random order against the wall and went back downstairs followed by a curious crowd. They found a dining table. Gohan, Trunks and Pan took that upstairs. Bra and Videl watched intently, Videl curiously and Bra eagerly - she couldn't wait to see her parents. She watched as the display on the elevator moved from floor to floor, until it reached the 18th. Bra was unconsciously holding her breath. The doors opened and out came a cot filled with toys, a box and two people. Bulma and Vegeta.

"Mum! Dad!" Bra squealed happily and she flung herself at her parents. She hugged Bulma first and then she turned to face her dad.

"Are you going to let me hug you?" She asked him, hand on hip.

"No," he replied, before receiving an elbow in the ribs from Bulma. "Fine."

Bra hugged him tightly and laughed at him. "There you go, it wasn't so hard, was it?" She released him and turned back to her mum. "Thanks for the furniture; almost everyone said that my flat was empty today. Now come in, we're just waiting for Goku, Chi Chi and Goten."

"Goten's not here? Where is he?"

"With Paris, Oh yes, that reminds me dad, you are on your best behaviour; otherwise I'll never speak to you again. Ok? Ok!"

Bra showed her parents into the flat and Bulma looked around critically. "It is rather empty Bra; we should have brought more furniture with us." The she realised that more people were there. "Oh, hello all. Gohan, Videl! I haven't seen you for so long!"

Bra rolled her eyes. She hated it when her mum went posh. Hello all? Bra thought as she caught Trunks' eye and they both winced. Bra turned to her dad and raised her eyebrows, he replied by rolling his eyes. Bulma made her way over to the sofa and sat down; moving the cushion Goten had used to cover his stain. She spotted the stain Goten had made.

"Bra, sweetie, there's a stain on your couch."

Bra walked over to inspect it. "That Goten…I'm going to kill him…" She growled angrily, clenching her fists. "Where the hell is he?"

And then the doorbell rang. Bra stomped over to the door and yanked it open, ready to have a go at Goten. Chichi and Goku smiled back at her. "Oh…" she faltered. "Hi, how do you do?"

"Good, thank you Bra dear," Chichi replied cheerfully, walking past Bra into the room. Goku grinned at Bra and followed his wife.

Chichi was already gushing about the house and Goku had started up conversation with Gohan and Vegeta, Bulma was joining in with Chichi and Trunks and Pan were talking in a corner. Bra returned to talk to Videl.

"Do you want to come into the kitchen? I can make you a coffee?" Bra asked.

"I could kill for one right now," she replied, "I don't care if you're meant to drink coffee after your meal, meeting the family is stressful."

"Amen sister," Bra agreed, rolling her eyes, "you think you've got problems? You haven't tried to keep my dad from exploding."

"I suppose, but you've never had the embarrassing problem of sitting with a Saiyan chugging down 100 helpings of food."

"True, I'm always eating as much as they are."

"Even, then?" Videl asked.

"Even."

They grinned at each other. Videl wasn't like Pan, but Bra liked her, and was surprised that she hadn't taken the time to talk to her properly before. Bra had never been shy around her friends' parents but she had always had the impression that Videl hadn't been to keen on her. She _had_ acted like a spoilt brat back in her teen and childhood years though. Getting a job, getting with Goten and, last but not least, getting pregnant had definitely moved her out of spoilt-brat-dom and into the real world. She supposed that Videl had seen this and had decided to take the time to talk to her.

- - - - -

Goten was still with Paris and Bra had given in waiting for him. It was half past 8 and all of the Saiyans were starving hungry and Trunks and Goku had started their 50th arm wrestling match (Goku winning 40-9), so Bra took the food out of the oven where she'd put it to heat it up and set the table. When she had returned to the kitchen to collect the food all of the Saiyans' attention was on her. When she walked up the stairs with the food a second later the Saiyans quietly (and probably unconsciously) followed the smell of it to the table. The humans followed at a steadier pace. They waited almost politely for the humans to sit down before taking a seat never for a second taking their eyes off the food. The silence was intense.

As the last Saiyan bum hit its chair there was a huge lunge towards the serving spoons and loud shout from Bulma and Chichi.

"PUT THE FOOD DOWN NOW GOKU!" Chichi yelled, fists raised. Gohan had managed to restrain himself from attacking the food and now he breathed a sigh of relief. He hated the 'wrath of Chichi' when she was angry.

"VEGETA! TRUNKS! IF EVEN ONE FORKFUL OF THAT FOOD GOES INTO YOUR MOUTHS YOU ARE LIVING ON THE STREETS! YOU HEAR?" The said Saiyans hastily scraped the food back into the dishes and sat down forlornly (Vegeta scowling).

Bra took her seat and smiled brightly around. "Erm…you can eat now." Again, but more warily, the Saiyans lunged for the food and started dishing it out like there was no tomorrow. Once they had put enough food on their plates the humans got their portion and dinner started.

Almost in synch, as everyone lifted their first forkfuls to their mouth, they heard a key in the lock and the door downstairs opened. Goku hurriedly shoved his fork into his mouth and then adopted the alert look that everyone at the table was wearing. There was a loud thud downstairs as whoever had opened the door tripped over the welcome mat and then a loud 'oops' followed. Bra looked fearfully around the table and noticed that Bulma and Chichi had the same scared look as her.

"_God save our gorgeous Bra,_

_Long live our sexy Bra,_

_God save Princess Bra!_

_Send her victorious,_

_Filled with her gorgeousness!_

_Long to reign over me!_

_GOD SAVE PRINCESS BRA!"_

Bra went into complete shock. She felt paralysed. Her father had heard Goten sing a stupid song about her. As some of her shock subsided she felt it become replaced by an embarrassed heat that was rising to cheeks from the very tips of her toes. She smiled bravely at everyone.

"I'm sorry, I think that Goten had a few drinks too many, please, do carry on eating.

She stood up delicately despite her pregnant belly and tip toed to the stairs. The guests watched in intrigued silence as she moved silently down the stairs. As her figure disappeared down the stairs they all got up and silently went towards the stairs to watch what would happen.

"Hello Bra!" Goten said in a playful voice, "did you like my song? It's a bit of a sorry present for being so late. Has everybody left already?" He must have been the only person in the world to not notice Bra's thunderous expression and cower.

Bra cocked her head to one side, and smiled up at him. It was not a pleasant smile. "Oh yes, you're late. But never mind eh? Sometimes, we just lose track of time, don't we?"

Goten was becoming nervous and he smiled broadly back at her. "Yeah, Paris kept making excuses every time I tried to leave…"

"Well then Goten, I guess you're lucky that my guests are always so polite and don't mind waiting for hours for their dinner. Now, go upstairs and greet them Goten." Goten looked at her pleadingly but couldn't find any sympathy in her expression so he made for the stairs, his heart beating faster than it had ever beat before. The spectator-guests had ran to the table upon hearing Bra's command and were eating and chatting as if they hadn't heard a thing. They all fell silent and turned as Goten reached the top of the stairs.

"Hi everyone," he said lamely. "Sorry for being so late… Erm, how have you all been…?" He tried to grin but it faltered under the glares he was receiving. Bra came up behind him and shoved him rather brutally towards the table.

"Sit down then Goten."

He looked around the table and his heart sunk even lower. The only seat was between Gohan and Vegeta and opposite Trunks. He walked slowly towards his seat, fully aware of the glares he was receiving. Trunks stuck out his foot as Goten walked past but Goten stepped over it. Vegeta gave him the filthiest look he could muster as he sat down but said nothing.

"Get yourself some food then." Bra snapped.

Goten did as he was told, and everyone watched in fascinated silence as if he was going to do something amazing. He sat back down again and started eating miserably, hardly hungry for once in his life. Slowly, everyone returned to their own food and conversation started once more. Trunks was talking to Pan and Goten watched them as he toyed with his food. Trunks kept kicking him under the table but Goten hardly felt them. He was in turmoil. What would happen once everyone left? Had he screwed up again? Undoubtedly he had, but was it bad enough to get him kicked out of Bra's life again, this time for good?

He felt someone nudge him and he looked up to see who it had been. Gohan grinned at him. "Don't worry about it, everybody found your song hilarious except for Trunks, Vegeta and Bra. And if you haven't done anything wrong then you have nothing to worry about."

Goten nodded and carried on picking at his food. He wasn't out of the dog house yet. He briefly looked up at Bra and saw that she wasn't talking much either. She looked almost as miserable as he did. This wasn't the Bra he knew, his Bra was angry at him when he did something wrong, not upset about it. This realisation did not make him feel any better, it made his stomach clench uncomfortably and it made him even more fearful of what was to happen later.

He returned to watching Pan and Trunks. His niece would never speak to him again if he split up with Bra ever again (even though according to Bra they weren't together). Trunks already hated him with a passion and Vegeta… he didn't even want to think what Vegeta would do. Trunks was whispering something to Pan and she turned pink. Goten wondered half heartedly what he had said to her. Then he noticed that Pan was glaring at him, still pink. Ah, he thought, _that's_ what Trunks told her. His curiosity was definitely getting the better of him as far as the two people in front of him were concerned. He had told Trunks that Pan had had a crush on him, something that Pan had told him in confidence. This was the reason why Pan had sent him the glare. Would it be weird if his little niece married someone that hated him? He wouldn't be invited to the wedding if Trunks was in charge, that's for sure.

He was vaguely aware of someone taking his plate from him but he ignored it. He chanced another look at Bra and saw that she was the one out of her seat and over laden with plates. He got up, this time not bothered by any strange or nasty looks he was getting. These people couldn't be any better than he was if no one was helping her. He glared uncharacteristically at all of them before taking the plates and taking them downstairs to the kitchen. The kitchen offered him the peace and quiet he so desperately needed after such a hectic day and he was reluctant to leave, so he started washing up. In that day he felt as if his mental age of 6 had aged to his body's age of 31.

He scrubbed wearily at each plate, not expecting anyone to have missed him upstairs. He had never been so unpopular before, even when everyone had found out about Paris. At least then some people had seen that it was an accident, not on purpose. He sighed morosely, looking up at the ceiling from where sounds of conversation were coming. He did not wish to be up there, but he missed being friends with Trunks, being in his parents' good books and he even missed being able to annoy Vegeta without the fear of being ripped to shreds. If things were different, this could have been a fun party, where I would have arrived on time, teased Pan and Trunks and pushed Vegeta into the pool, he thought gloomily to himself.

"Need any help?" Bra asked, looking at him from the doorway. He hadn't heard her coming.

"No, you go upstairs and have fun," he replied quietly, not looking at her.

She walked over anyway and nudged him sideways with her hip. She picked up another wash cloth and took a dirty plate from the pile.

"I know you didn't mean to arrive late," She told him as they washed up in silence.

Goten didn't reply, but his morale rose a fraction.

"I was angry because you arrived late when you knew they were coming. And because of that stupid song. But, I'm not angry anymore."

She lapsed into silence, and Goten glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She seemed unsure of what to say next.

"In the back of my mind, all the way through tonight, I thought that maybe you loved Paris. That maybe you didn't want to stay with me, have a son or daughter by me. I didn't mean for this night to turn out so badly for you. I saw Trunks kicking you, but I didn't want to say anything because I was angry."

Goten still said nothing. He could feel that she had more to say. He focussed on the dishes before him and waited with hidden curiosity for what more she had to say.

"I've been an absolute cow to you, and you didn't deserve it, but Goten I-" she broke off thinking back on the months she had endured by herself, torturing herself with thoughts of Goten forgetting about her and her baby and living happily with Paris. "It hurt me so much. To know that Paris was having your baby, to be so proud that I could never think any differently than to what I had already accused you of doing. Never, not once, in all of those days, weeks, months that you weren't there, did I think that maybe you were feeling just as bad as I was. You lost your friends. I only lost you. And now that I think about how you must have felt, I feel so selfish. I'm sorry."

Goten's head snapped up and he finally turned to look at her. He had had a bad time, but he saw himself as the wrong party, not the wronged party. He felt as though he deserved to lose his friends.

"You don't have to apologise to me. You were right the first time; all of this is my fault."

"No, it's not your fault. You told me that it was an accident, but I didn't believe you. We could have worked this out a long time ago; it would have been hard but look at us now, we did it, we're talking to each other. You're _living_ here, even if it _is_ temporary. All I can think about is all the time we've lost, what a screwed up child we'll be bringing up – do you know what happens to children with split up parents? And I'm so young too." Bra was talking more to herself now than to him, but she did have a point, even if it was a paranoid one.

"Even if we don't live together like parents should, we won't have a bad relationship. We'd be just like your parents; they love each other – I think – but they hardly show a relationship model parents should have. Our baby is not going to grow up screwed up and I _know_ you, you can handle anything, and of course I'll always be helping to look after it."

Bra looked up at him sharply and he flinched. Had he said something stupid? He wondered. She seemed to be struggling with herself. "What did you say about my parents?" She burst out viciously, fists clenching. In the two seconds that he had to think of something nice to say to her he puzzled over why she was in such a foul mood all of a sudden.

"Well?" She growled in a voice not unlike her father's.

"I didn't mean for it to sound rude. I meant that… they don't act like they're together. I wouldn't know it if I hadn't been told." It had sounded ok in his head but it looked like it wasn't ok out loud or to Bra.

"Your parents are hardly perfect though are they?" She asked coldly, eyes narrowed in anger.

"Far from it!" Goten laughed, thinking of all the times he had been hit heartily over the head with Chichi's frying pan or the countless times his father had done something stupid. Bra continued to regard him icily, hating everyone who criticised her parents but then she sighed and let it go. She couldn't be the spoilt princess anymore. She had to grow up and learn not pick petty fights with 'the lower class' just because her daddy acted the same way.

"Yeah…" she breathed, agreeing with something unknown to Goten. "I can be a good mum. You're right."

She slowly walked over to the kitchen table with her and on her bump and sat down heavily. "Do I have to go back upstairs?" She groaned, back to her normal self. Goten shrugged helplessly back.

"Whose idea was this dinner? Who wanted to have a quiet night in?" He asked, grinning.

"If only you weren't so obsessed with throwing parties eh?" Bra smiled tiredly, lazily drawing invisible pictures on the table with her finger.

"Don't try to pin the blame on me Bra. I'm only the dishwasher."

"A raving, party animal dishwasher?" Bra asked hopefully.

He shook his head mock-regretfully. "To tell you the truth I'm not sure if I can face 'socialising' with those people. Not for another fifty years or so when I'm not in disgrace leastways."

Bra heaved herself to her feet, holding the table dramatically to emphasise her tiredness. "I expect you up there as soon as you finish washing the dishes… speaking of which… Goten, you did say you were a dishwasher didn't you?"

"Yep, that's what I said." He replied cheerfully, bowing jokily.

"Well then, you couldn't be a washing machine could you?" She inquired sweetly.

"Of course I could."

"In that case, if you could fit a little favour into your over laden social calendar, _would you get that damn stain off my couch!_"

"Right away madam," Goten replied hastily, bowing again, and then winking at her. "Got any underwear I can wash?" He asked in his Master Roshi voice.

She stuck her tongue out at him before retreating back up the stairs to the 'party'.

- - - - -

_Oh I'm awful aren't I? I didn't really like this chapter at all, but I did try, for all of you! I know it's not too interesting and I missed out Goten's return to the rest of the people and this was a bit of a pointless chapter but I'm only trying to build suspense people. Please, give me the best reviews you can and I'll try my best to amaze you with chapter 8, which I promise will be better than this (ooh I have a lot planned). Just wanted to remind you that I have finally allowed anonymous reviews, thanks to LunaBela – I promise a lot more Trunks/Pan later too (although it'll probably not be in the next chapter). I love you all! xxx _


	8. Chapter 8

_Here we go again… goodness, it's so overwhelming. I'm in two minds right now, one thinking: YESSS I'M NEARLY DONE! The other is thinking: no! I love this story; I'll never ever finish it! But none the less, it has to be done, however troublesome it all is. I can't believe the amount of hits I've had, it's really touching, even though I would love more reviews…hint? I do love all of my reviewers though… you're the best ok? Don't let anyone tell you you're not the best because you are! Dya know, I was wondering whether anyone read my ramblings – I was reading over this story (found zillions of typos) and I read them and they made ME laugh…sad life indeed…._

- - - - -

8. To get a reaction

What Bra craved the most from Goten was his attention. Unlike everybody else he did not give her the undivided attention that she had grown up with. When she shouted at him he did not show any sign of her doing anything out of the ordinary. When she had flirted with him whilst he was going out with Paris he had been completely indifferent. When she had sulked over something stupid, her had ignored her. It should have irritated her, but it didn't. It fascinated her. It was an alien way to act for her. She had always longed for him to get angry with her, be scared of her, or have _some_ kind of reaction from her actions and this was one of the things that had led her to fall in love with him.

She was sitting in her living room now, tired from the cleaning up she had had to do after the party (Goten had helped but it had been tiring all the same). She watched him from the sofa as he read a book about the cell games, frowning occasionally at what she assumed was a lie made up by a reporter or Videl's father, the one and only bumbling oaf, Hercule. 'That book triggers more of a reaction than I could ever cause'. A passing thought.

"Good book?" She asked lazily.

Goten looked up at her and smiled a small smile. "Brilliant. I loved the account of my dad's death."

She stifled a yawn with the back of her hand and then rested her head on her hands. She loved lazy days. Back at Capsule Corp when Goten had begun to go off Paris and hang around her a lot more they had spent many a day lazing on the huge sofas watching stupid films and Bra would always flirt with him jokily. She _had_ been interested, but even then it had been more about trying to get a reaction out of him. She closed her eyes, focusing on what it had felt like to be model girl thin and trying to stop her mind from wondering back to the good times with Goten. She yawned again and tucked her feet underneath her body to get more comfortable. She gazed out of the window for lack of a better thing to do. It was a grey day, and rain was pouring down. She loved the rain too.

"Hey," she said quietly into the silence, "do you remember all those days we spent doing this at Capsule Corp?"

Goten put down the book and looked across the room at her again. "Yeah, we were like little kids. The snack competition was the best."

Snack competition? Bra puzzled to herself, before remembering. "I won that." She smiled playfully at him, trying to lure him into an argument or denial. It was an old trick, and it had never worked, but Bra enjoyed trying to get that reaction out of him.

"Yeah… I couldn't manage much after the forty-fifth packet of jelly beans." He smiled reminiscently at the memory before returning to his book, leaving Bra with her disappointment at his boring answer. She settled back down sulkily on the couch, and then ceased her pouting as she remembered that sulking, too, had failed to coax a reaction from Goten. Instead, she curled up on her side to face the window, where she watched the rain fall past.

A few minutes later she felt Goten jump onto the sofa to sit beside her. She could sense that he was worried about something but couldn't really be bothered to start up another abysmal conversation.

"What's the matter?" He asked her, peering curiously at her face.

She shrugged by way of reply, but poked him playfully in the leg with her toe to assure him that she was fine. Strangely, he didn't grab her foot or attack her playfully in return like _her _Goten would have done. He had been uncharacteristically serious since the dinner and it was beginning to annoy her.

"What's up with _you_?" She asked accusingly, unable to bite back her words.

Goten blinked at her. "Nothing," he replied simply, "why do you ask?"

"You're… serious! It doesn't suit you. I want the old Goten back. The one who sings stupid songs and has snacking competitions with me." She blurted this out, giving him a sharper jab in the leg with her foot. As he always had done, he ignored the violence and her tone of voice.

"I'm tired," he replied plainly, yawning as if to prove his point. "It's not everyday that a guy becomes a father."

Bra had forgotten all about Paris and Belle. His reply had stung a bit but Bra pushed it to the back of her mind and instead of shouting at him she poked him gently with her toe and smiled at him. They both sat in a comfortable silence, listening to the rain hitting the window. Bra's mind was on Goten, Goten's mind was elsewhere. In some ways Bra _did_ have it easier, and he felt no guilt in thinking that. _She _would never look bad in her child's eyes; _she _would never have to take any blame for anything that had happened in their relationship. For the first time ever he felt a small prick of anger towards the small, blue haired girl curled up beside him staring blankly out of the window. He was shocked by his sudden anger, Bra had always been able to annoy him to the brink of yelling at her but he'd never felt any anger towards her. Unconsciously, he shook his head to clear it of its hostility. Bra looked over at him, eyebrows raised in question.

"What's up Goten?" She asked.

"I was just thinking," he replied plainly, smiling at her. It displaced her worry with mild curiosity.

"What were you thinking about?"

"You." He replied. "Us."

She nodded absentmindedly, but he could almost see her brain working behind her eyes. He guessed that she was thinking of a question that would keep her curiosity concealed but at the same time reveal his thoughts. Ha, he thought to himself, she won't get this one out of me. Finally, she spoke.

"Ok," she said just as blandly as he had replied to everything she had said to him that day. She smirked and turned back to look at the rain. He, too, smiled to himself. He had no idea what mind game she wanted to play (she was always trying these with him and he had no idea why), but whatever it was – Game on.

- - - - -

Bra hadn't wanted to do anything at all that day, and Goten had nothing to do either, and was not particularly keen on the idea that Bra had suggested he do – visit Belle and Paris. So they had sat mainly in silence for the whole day, Bra cat-napping, Goten reading. Now it was late, and due to Bra's various cat-naps, Bra couldn't sleep. She had tossed and turned for a couple of hours, and was now lying still, staring at the luminous numbers on her digital clock.

00:18

00:19

She transferred her stares to her surroundings and traced the outlines of the dark shapes in her room with her eyes. If she strained her ears she could hear Goten moving around in the living room, as restless as she was. She wondered why she didn't go to him, but never dwelled on the question for too long, knowing in the back of her mind that the reason that she didn't go to him was because the pride she had inherited from her father wouldn't let her; because it was a weakness. A way of forgiving everything – something she never intended to do, although she already had gone back on more than a few intents, and she _did_ notice it, but she'd never admit it.

00:23 – Her gaze returned to the harsh red light of the clock. She shifted slightly but knew it would do nothing to rid her of her restlessness. She despised staying awake at night, lying still for hours, longing to slip into a deep sleep but not even managing to keep her eyes closed for longer than ten minutes. She closed her eyes once more, but this time in a prayer for patience. She had anger burning up inside her as her spoilt brat side tried to come out for a tantrum for not getting her sleep, what she wanted, what she should get.

Her eyes snapped open again and she balled her duvet up angrily in her fists. She growled under her breath and moodily turned to face away from the clock. As she took a deep, calming breath, ready to try sleeping again, Goten knocked at her door.

"What is it?" She mumbled sleepily, acting for reasons unknown even to herself.

"I know that you were awa-ake," He called out in a singsong voice.

"Bugger off Goten," she said, although she was wishing hard that he would ignore her and come in as she said it.

"Ok…" he sung, "I guess I'll have to drink this large pot of cocoa and eat this yummy chocolate cake that my mum made us aaaaaaalllll byyyyy myself!"

She sat up quickly. "How did you know I was awake?" She asked, changing tack before she jumped up to eat.

"Ki tells me everything I need to know." Goten answered from outside – Bra could almost hear his wink. Swallowing her pride (denying swallowing it to herself) she jumped out of bed and turned on the light. She opened her wardrobe as silently as she could and grabbed a baggy hoodie (one of Trunks' she believed) and threw it on, and then she ruffled her hair to give herself the 'chic bedhead' look. She peered briefly at her reflection in the mirror and was satisfied. She opened the door and smiled widely up at him.

"It's about time you went back to your goofy old self – eating cake and drinking hot chocolate at half past twelve at night? Only you Goten."

"And when has my goofiness _ever _bothered you Bra?" He asked, dolloping emphasis all around his sentence.

"Never ever," she replied, "it's your seriousness earlier that frightened me. Come on! I want my cake!"

She marched determinedly down the narrow corridor into the living room, made a sharp turn and march just as determinedly into the kitchen. Once at her destination she plonked herself down onto a chair and turned to look at Goten expectantly.

"So I've got to get it for you too?" He questioned in mock disbelief. "I thought offering it to you was enough, but I must have been mistaken. She may be putting her foot down on her spoilt bratty-ness, but she couldn't stop expecting everything to be given to her on a plate eh?"

Bra smiled benignly at him. "You noticed then? It must've been that bad that even though I've only been trying for a day the whole world noticed."

"Nope!" Goten replied proudly, "I'm the only one who pays attention to these things. It's my job to put a smile on this lovely lady's face by noticing things." He paused and hummed thoughtfully. "Or maybe….it's because…I have to live with this brat!"

"Shut up and get me some cake, slave!" She barked, tapping her fingers impatiently on the table.

"Yes milady," Goten said in a posh voice, bowing so low his hair flopped over his face and touched the floor.

Bra rolled her eyes good naturedly but Goten didn't see it. She watched him as he uncovered the cake ("ta-da!") and cut it for her, placing the slice on a plate and stabbing a fork in it, ready for her to eat. He did the same for himself and sat opposite her, putting her plate in front of her and his in front of himself.

"Thanks," she said sincerely, picking up her fork and prodding the slice with her fork.

"You're welcome," he replied, grinning, just as always. He shoved the first more-than-bite-size piece in his mouth. "Wow! This cake tastes good – I bet it's poisoned!"

Bra arched an eyebrow at him. Only him indeed. She picked half-heartedly at the cake, no longer hungry. The atmosphere around them was bordering on awkward and it was beginning to get to her. Never the shy one, as mentioned, she hated anyone or anything awkward. Goten, of course, was oblivious, shovelling down forkfuls of cake until he'd finished.

"I'm going to be so obese after all this food," he joked, stretching and revealing some of his muscled stomach, which was not in the slightest obese.

"Saiyans have a really high metabolism," Bra told him, "it would take about ten times the amount of food you've eaten today to make you plump, let alone obese. That's what my mum reckons, anyway, and she usually knows what she's talking about…although food is definitely not her strong point." She wrinkled her nose in distaste at the thought of her mum's terrible 'cooking'.

"You'd think with all this talk of food you would've been hungry," he remarked, pointedly staring at Bra's cake. "Remind me how you won the snack race again?"

"Ha ha," she said sarcastically, before pushing her cake towards him. "Have it, I'm not hungry anymore."

He stabbed the cake slice quickly in case she decided to change her mind. She watched him eat with raised eyebrows, pretending that she didn't eat twice as quickly and messily as he did.

Once he'd finished his second slice Bra stood up and picked up the two plates, moving to the sink to wash up. She turned on the hot tap and reached over for her pair of yellow washing up gloves and the detergent. As she began to scrub the dishes she heard Goten move towards her and stand behind her. She turned curiously and found herself in a not-so-strange-but-quite-unexpected predicament. Their faces were only a few inches apart.

Her breath hitched in her throat as she stared at him, her mind racing to recover memories of her kissing Goten. At that moment she wanted to kiss Goten. And to her the distance between them seemed like kilometres. Her eyes flickered uncertainly between his eyes and lips, not sure what she was doing but being compelled by some force to not move away. In the silence she could hear her heart beating and feel her stomach churning in a not-entirely-unpleasant way. She settled on closing her eyes. After what felt like an excruciatingly long time but was a few seconds they touched heir lips together. As she felt his lips Bra's legs buckled underneath her and she felt strangely detached from her body. A surge of pain shot through her body starting at her right shoulder blade and ending at her toes. She lost consciousness.

_Can I just 'ooh' at my own cunning plotline? The next chapter's gonna be a heart breaker I swear! I had completely run out of ideas for the last few chapters but now I'm back in action. Gomen for the delays on this chapter. I only had to wrap it up but it took me 4 months (oh lord). Did you enjoy my Japanese?_

_Please read and review my dear readers! _


	9. Chapter 9

_Welcome to Chapter 9 of number 9! It's good to see you again. Thanks for the wonderful reviews for the last chapter (wasn't sure of it – I'll call it another filler) and I promise you that this one will be interesting. (This kiss scene was terrible, but it was better than nothing right? It has a key part anyway I suppose)._

_For this chapter (the beginning) italics Bra, normal is Goten (I'll put in an A/N when there's no more switching.)_

_Here we go:_

9, Baby Blues

_She could hear something beeping faintly, somewhere far away. She couldn't understand why everything was black. She couldn't even remember who or what she was. She kept trying to follow the noise but she couldn't tell what direction it was coming from. She kept getting lost in the endless dark. Every now and again she could feel something on her left. She wanted to say it hurt, but she couldn't form any words. She didn't want to be alone in this alien place, held captive by the blackness._

- - - - -

Goten watched Bra, lying listless on her hospital bed. She had collapsed three days ago, shuddering and twitching and in obvious pain. Since then her condition had stabilised and all he could do was wait for her to regain consciousness. The doctor had explained to him that it would take a while longer because of her pregnancy. He let out a long, slow breath and rubbed his eyes tiredly. His parents had visited earlier and he had allowed himself to sleep for a few hours but it did next to nothing after the three sleepless nights he had spent watching Bra, praying for her to open her eyes.

She didn't look much like Bra at the moment, with her hair lank and dull, her face pale and drawn and with a drip attached to her hand. She looked a lot older than him now – age wouldn't be a problem now, he thought bitterly. She looked around forty now. It was her turn to be 8 years older than him.

He reached out and grabbed her hand squeezing it tightly. She seemed to feel it, because every time he squeezed her hand she would give a little twitch. It proved to him that she was just waiting for the best time to wake up.

- - - - -

_She felt the squeezing feeling again and tried to turn towards it. Something was holding her still though, and even when she fought hard against it she couldn't move. The steady beeps carried on going, getting louder and closer to her. Maybe she had managed to move without realising? Could it be that she was going in the right direction? With new determination she fought against her restraints._

- - - - - (A/N: END OF SWITCHES)

Without realising it, Goten had fallen asleep. The last thing he remembered was his head lolling back and forth, and his brain reminding him frequently to keep his eyes open. Once he had woken up again, it was nearing three in the morning. Automatically he squeezed Bra's hand and watched her intently. Her breathing had changed and he noted with relief that she was no longer unconscious but asleep. He pressed the button by her bed and waited for the doctor or a nurse to come by. As he waited he began to wish that she wouldn't have to wake up so soon. After such a freak collapse, he wondered how well she would be able to look after herself.

The doctor arrived and nodded in greeting at Goten, mumbling a quiet good night, and then started checking Bra's pulse and consulting the beeping machine at her side. He peered into her eyes and finally stepped away from her.

"She's sleeping, but I don't think it would be a good time to wake her. You should let her come around in her own time." Nodding gravely at Goten once more, he bade him good night and returned to another patient, or his office, or wherever night doctors go at night.

Goten sighed. He was relieved that Bra was ok, but he wasn't looking at all forward to telling her about her condition. Bra had always been temperamental, and known to take things to the extremes, and Goten was sure that her reaction would not be a good one. He continued to watch her closely, praying both for her to sleep and to wake.

He wished that her parents could break the news to her. Vegeta had been willing to tell her but Bulma had stated firmly that Goten should be the one to do it.

Settling into a more comfortable position in his plastic chair, Goten began the last of the waiting.

- - - - -

Bra's eyes fluttered open two hours later, and thankfully she seemed to know what had happened.

"How long have I been out?" She asked hoarsely, her voice small. Despite how ill she had been she looked quite happy, and a small smile graced her lips as soon as she saw him.

"Three days, almost four," Goten told her gently.

"Wow Goten, you sure know how to knock a girl out – some kiss huh?" she joked, but he had seen her hand fly to her stomach with some mother's instinct she had to check if her baby was still there.

Goten smiled wearily at her.

"What's the matter with me?" She asked.

"The doctors weren't sure. Your dad guessed that it was Saiyan related, but he was never really close to Saiyan women so…"

"Oh…how's the baby?"

Goten held his breath. He had been preparing for this question, but now that it had come up he didn't know what to say. He tried to meet her eye but he couldn't do it, so he focused on her pillow. "Bra, there's some really bad news…you see, when there are…complications… like yours during pregnancies, it's procedure to check the baby. The doctors couldn't…on the ultra scan…" He trailed off, and looked quickly at Bra. She stared back at him, her face betraying no fear.

"Go on," she said clearly.

"They couldn't find his heart beat." Goten finished, hardly daring to look at her.

She didn't say anything, but turned away from him to face the white wall on the other side of the room. "I want to be alone now Goten. Thank you for waiting for me to wake up. It was nice of you." Her voice was clear and steady, but he could tell that she was falling to pieces.

He knew to do what she told him, so he left the room and waited outside. He hadn't felt anything yet about losing his son, but having told Bra, it felt much more real. It confirmed that the baby was never going to go home with them, grow up. They weren't going to have their family. His eyes stung and he lifted his hand up to his face and pressed down on his eyes with his fingers.

He hadn't managed to tell her that she would be having the baby removed from her by caesarean as soon as the doctors thought she was well enough. The doctors had been worried about the effects a miscarried Saiyan baby would have on a mother so they had decided on a caesarean under general anaesthetic, to 'prevent further distress to Mrs Son' (Goten hadn't been bothered to correct them).

He gave Bra and hour to herself before he returned to her room.

"What's going to happen?" she asked. He explained to her what the doctor had told him.

"It's a boy then?" she asked him after he had finished.

"Yes, the told me after the scan," Goten's throat was burning. He could understand why Bra was so calm – she was still in shock and recovering from her illness.

"It's strange isn't it? I was sure that the baby would be a girl. Positive, in fact. People kept telling me that mothers get these feelings that tell them, and I got 'girl' every time. I guess it's a good thing that I'm not going to be a mum."

Goten stared helplessly at her.

Bra stared fiercely back, daring him to tell her that she was wrong. 'Everything happens for a reason' she told herself, 'I am not meant to have this child'. She was not going to cry. She was not going to be angry.

"Goten, please, get me a senzu bean, I want to have the caesarean tomorrow."

- - - - -

Pan sat at the Capsule Corp. kitchen table with Bulma and Trunks. Bulma was staring listlessly at a crumb left over from dinner.

"I can't believe it," Pan said aloud.

"Believe it," said Trunks back, though a lot more quietly than Pan had spoken. He was respecting the silence.

"Bra's stronger than this, her baby cannot be dead," Pan replied angrily, banging her fists on the table for emphasis.

"I'm going to bed," Bulma spoke up, and without waiting for a reply, she left the room.

Pan watched her. She was livid. How could Bra lose her baby? Hadn't she suffered enough for the baby? It had to be somebody's fault. There had to be someone who could be beaten to death so everything could be right again.

"Pan, I know you're upset but please stop bringing it up. Bra's not going to want to hear about it every time you're here."

"This shouldn't be happening."

"But it is."

Pan fumed again, though this time in silence. She glared at the clock ticking away on the wall, she frowned at the table, and she shot daggers at Trunks.

"Why don't you care?" she burst out eventually. "How can you be so calm when your nephew died? My cousin? You're just like your dad!"

"Just shut up for a second Pan. Just because my family isn't going on and on about it, it doesn't mean we don't care. You're loud; we're quieter, live with it." He was equally pissed off, and Pan was making it worse.

"Sorry," Pan replied uncharacteristically quietly. She stood up and hugged Trunks tightly, her throat tight with tears. He wrapped an arm around her waist as tightly as he could in her awkward standing position. She understood how much worse it was feeling for him. His sister would be hurting for a long time; his whole family would be affected. Pan might be as close as a sister to Bra, but she would never understand it like a sibling by blood would. Pan stroked his hair comfortingly, hoping that Goten would be comforting Bra.

- - - - -

The doctors had been very doubtful about the senzu bean, but Bra had proved to them that she was fit and ready for the operation. Counselling had been offered to her and had been refused by her. She seemed to have focused all of her attention on removing the baby from her body and there was nothing anybody could do to change her mind. Her parents had spoken briefly to her, trying to talk her into waiting a little longer but she was stubborn. It was obvious that she was not going to change her mind.

Eventually the doctors agreed to run the pre-op tests. She seemed to be completely fine. By noon she was ready for her anaesthetic and by one o'clock or sooner, she would no longer be carrying her baby.

Goten was silent throughout everything. Without the baby there was only Bra's choice. There was nothing he could do to convince her to wait. 'And what good would waiting do anyway?' he had asked himself. There was nothing to wait for. Bra was in tip-top condition. He just didn't want it to be so final, so soon. As Bra was wheeled out of her room he said goodbye, but not to her, to the baby. She caught his eye for a split second and just for that moment, they could see into each other's minds. She had mouthed 'I'm sorry' to him, but he didn't understand what she was apologising for.

A couple of minutes later, he was joined by Pan and Trunks.

"Where's Bra?" Pan asked fearfully noting the empty room straight away.

"Gone for the operation," Goten replied flatly, sinking onto his plastic chair.

Trunks was staring at him, and Goten looked questioningly at him. "You did something to her." He said.

"No," Goten replied.

"Stop it Trunks," Pan warned. He ignored her.

"You were the last person with her," he insisted, "people don't collapse for no reason. What did you do to her?"

"I didn't do _anything_ to her. Why would I want this?" Goten stood up angrily. Pan stepped between them, pushing Trunks backwards.

"Will you knock it off Trunks? Why the hell would Goten want to kill his Bra or his son? You and I both know that Goten loved Bra. And, before you bring it up, you _do_ know that Paris' pregnancy was an accident. I know that you're trying to be like your father but _this - _this is pathetic. Vegeta didn't accuse Goten, so be like him now and _back off_." She was so angry that her hands were shaking. If there was one thing Pan hated, it was rudeness towards her family.

Trunks seemed taken aback, but after a second he snorted disgustedly at her. Goten noticed that he didn't try to start up another fight. Pan could be as scary as Chichi and Videl combined and he felt a bit sorry for Trunks. He would hate to be on the receiving end of Pan's anger.

"I can't believe it Goten," Pan breathed out sadly. "She was fine and now she's…"

"Haven't you talked enough about this?" Trunks said bitterly from where he stood.

She glared at him furiously. "Stop being a prick because Goten is here. You guys were the best of friends; you don't have to play 'strongest Saiyan – Vegeta vs. Goku'. Listen, both of you, when Bra comes into this room I want _no _arguing, no comments and no fighting. We're not here to sort out your problems, we're here for Bra. Ok?"

Goten nodded tiredly, and Trunks turned away from her sulkily – his way of agreeing.

"So… do you know how long the operation is?" Pan asked Goten.

"Not long, but it'll take her a while to wake up. She's under general anaesthetic."

"Why? Or is that a stupid question?" She asked.

"I don't suppose she'd want to be under local anaesthetic. You wouldn't really want to see your baby pulled out of you after…" he trailed off, still believing that if he didn't have to say his son was dead, it wouldn't be true. Trunks had been listening intently and he winced at the thought of seeing your dead child taken away from you before you even knew him. He wished that he had made more of an effort to help Bra just after she had broken up with Goten.

- - - - -

A half hour later a sleeping Bra was wheeled back into the room on her bed. The nurse hooked Bra up to the necessary machines and the asked Goten to step into Bra's doctor's office later. He wanted to find out what the doctor wanted to talk to him about but he didn't want to leave Bra just less. Trunks noticed his uncertainty of what to do.

"Go to the doctor, we'll stay with Bra," he said curtly. Goten smiled gratefully and left the room.

The doctor's room was almost next door to Bra's room, which helped to ease Goten's guilt of leaving Bra. He knocked hesitantly before letting himself in. The doctor gave him a small greeting and shook his hand, gesturing for him to sit down.

"Now, Mr Son, I have some good news and some bad news." Fear turned Goten's blood cold. The doctor seemed quite awkward. "The good news is that your son is alive. But he has a very serious heart condition, and we are unsure of how to treat him. From Mrs Son's medical files, we learned that she is – part Saiyan?" He ended in a question. Goten nodded. "It is possible that this heart problem is found in – in Saiyans. It's had us baffled. You saw for yourself in the scan that there was no heart beat." He paused. Goten was in two minds. His son was alive, but dangerously ill. Happiness and worry flooded through his body. "Now, because he is a month premature, his chances are less than they would normally be. We could wait until he is stronger but we do not know much about his heart, so we would prefer to do it as soon as possible. We would need yours and Mrs Son's permission to go through with the surgery."

"Can I see him?" Goten asked. The doctor nodded.

"He's in the ICU – Intensive care unit. I'll take you there." He and the doctor got up and left for the ICU. The doctor seemed to be walking at a snail's pace, but after an age they arrived. Goten washed his hands with antibacterial soap and pulled on some overalls at the doctor's instruction. The doctor led him into the room.

Goten saw his son the second he steeped through the door. He had a shock of already-messy dark blue hair and was sleeping peacefully. Even as a baby he had an amazing resemblance to neither Bra nor Goten but Trunks.

"Can I hold him?" Goten asked, overwhelmed by the tiny baby. He couldn't believe that the tiny bundle before him needed heart surgery. The doctor nodded and Goten picked up his son. He felt so tiny and fragile – he couldn't let him die after the scare he had given them all. What Bra had told him ran through his mind as he held 'Baby Son'. She believed that she would have made a bad mother, because she believed that things happened for a reason. If the baby was alive, he was meant to survive, right?

"You have my permission," he told the doctor quietly, as he stroked his son's tiny balled fist. The doctor nodded, and then quietly retreated.

- - - - -

Bra opened her eyes and peered groggily at Pan and Trunks.

"Is it over already?" she mumbled, trying to fight of the sleepiness. She felt her stomach and was startled at how much smaller it was already. What surprised her even more was how lonely she felt without her son keeping her company.

"Yes," Pan told her, "it's all over now. I'm so sorry Bra." Pan tried to not to cry for Bra's sake.

"Oh," was all Bra said. She fingered the stitches from the caesarean. She looked around the room. "Where's Goten?"

Pan shrugged. "I wouldn't know. He went to speak to the doctor a while ago and he hadn't come back yet. He'll be back soon enough though."

At that moment, Pan could've been a prophet, because only fifteen seconds later Goten walked through the door. "You're awake," he said, smiling.

"Yeah." She replied.

He sat down by her side. He was unsure where to start with his new news, but he told Bra, Pan and Trunks about the baby's condition. Once he had explained the condition to them, the room fell into silence, and Pan and Trunks exchanged looks. Pan hadn't fully understood the gravity of the situation and was thrilled, Trunks was not so happy – how would Bra react? She hated to be messed around, and that day she had been bombarded with problem after problem, and the drastic change from death to life would surely have a hard impact with her. Would she accept or reject her son now?

"I want to see him," she stated strongly after the pause. For some reason she was livid. She wanted to wring the neck of the first doctor she saw. "Goten, Trunks, Pan, _somebody_ take me to him _now_." She struggled to stand but couldn't. The anaesthetic hadn't worn off. No one made a move and she was losing her temper fast. "_Get me a fucking wheelchair goddamit_! I don't care if I have to drag myself along the floor to the ICU, I am going to see my son whether the doctors 'recommend it' or not."

"I don't think you should…" Goten started.

"DO NOT MAKE ME BLAST YOU THROUGH THIS WALL GOTEN. I HAVE SOME KI STORED UP JUST FOR YOU. FELL PRIVELAGED." She was exaggeratedly pissed off.

Eventually Pan stepped up fiercely and helped Bra out of bed. "Goten or Trunks, get her the damn chair. She's right; women have caesareans all the time and are up and about hours later. If she wants to see her baby, she can see her baby." Goten nodded, it was true enough, but if he had seen the baby, it was only fair that she did too. He wasn't sure if Bra understood how sick her son was though. He also wasn't sure about what the doctors would say.

Pan seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "The doctors will never let you see him so soon after your operation. We'll have to hide. Trunks, go see if the coast is clear." Trunks obediently did so and gave them the all clear. Running like they had escaped from the psychiatric ward they made their way to the ICU. Outside the door Goten instructed them to wash their hands and put on their overalls. Trunks and Pan declined the visit, insisting that it should be 'parents only'. Well, Pan insisted, Trunks agreed. Goten helped Bra into her overalls and wheeled her into the ICU.

The baby took her breath away. She kicked Goten in the calf and ordered him to wheel her to him. Without any hesitation and with (what Goten guessed was) a natural maternal instinct she scooped him into her arms.

"Hiro," she breathed.

"What?"

"His name." Bra said quietly, stroking her son's tiny face with her finger. "He looks like a Hiro to me."

Goten didn't particularly like the name Hiro, and he'd never heard Bra say she liked the name, but he supposed that she should be the one to name him after carrying him for not quite nine months.

"Don't you like the name?" Bra asked him. She could tell by the look on his face that he didn't. "It just really suits him. If we called him something like Hiroshi or Hiroyuki or something, I could abbreviate it." She was begging with him, but he couldn't understand why she was so fixated on the name. He couldn't think of the meaning of it, but if she wanted to call him Hiro, let her go ahead and name him Hiro. Or Hiroshi.

"Hiro's fine. I like the name Hiroshi better though, but I'll abbreviate with you."

"Baby Hiro – shi. Even if he chances aren't that good, they're better with surgery than without right? I'll give them permission." She hugged him tightly to her chest. "He's quiet isn't he? He hasn't cried, he hasn't made any noise. He must be really weak -" She stopped to frown around the room. "They shouldn't be leaving him alone like this."

Goten shrugged. "There's a nurse's station just over there. Bra, we should get you back to your room and tell the doctor he's got our permission. They want to start running tests straight away, and we're not doing Hiro any favours right now."

Bra glared at the offending room and reluctantly placed Hiro into his crib. "It doesn't look very comfortable," she said doubtfully, prodding the lining of the crib. "Maybe we should stay here until the doctor comes to check on him."

"Bra, you've just had an operation. We can call the doctor now and let him start the tests, but you have to sleep. You're not going to be very helpful to anyone if you're tired. Also," he ended, playing his ace card, "being up and about so soon will affect you healing. You might not be up when Hiro has to go to surgery." It was blackmail of sorts, but you had to be tough to get Bra to do what you wanted. Looking miserably at Hiro Bra nodded, and planted a feather light kiss on his cheek, as though scared she would hurt him.

"Wheel me away," she said forlornly, and Goten wheeled her out of the ICU to meet Pan and Trunks.

"Well?" Pan said excitedly as soon as she saw them.

"He's beautiful, but so tiny," Bra told her, and then her eyes filled with tears, "he's so sick. He didn't do anything, he just lay there. What the hell is wrong with him?" She brushed the tears away impatiently and the sagged against the arm rest of her wheelchair. She took a shaky breath. "Oh God, what if he dies? I love him so much, he can't leave me now - we've been through so much together."

"He'll be fine Bra, I promise," Pan told her. "You're just tired, and he's only a few hours old – you wouldn't expect him to be very lively would you?"

"Most newborns cry," Bra pointed out.

"Well, he's a new breed of Saiyan; maybe Saiyan-HumanxSaiyan-Human babies are quiet." Bra frowned at her. "Anyway," Pan continued hastily, "like I said, you're tired, and everything will look better in the morning."

The group wheeled Bra back to her room and helped settle her into the hospital bed, and Goten waited with her until she fell asleep before signing the permission forms for Hiro's surgery. The doctor told him about the testing procedures and what kind of surgery it would be most likely to be and how long the healing should last should the surgery be successful. Goten let it all wash over him; he was completely exhausted. He hadn't slept properly since Bra had collapsed. I felt as though a lifetime ago since Bra had fallen to the floor of her kitchen.

Once, as a teen on his way to school, he had over heard some people talking about life and death on the bus. One woman had said to her friend that she believed that whether you led a good or bad life now depended on how you had lived your past life. For example, she had said, if you murdered someone now, you would probably have an awful next life to pay for you sin. Goten hadn't believed a word of it at the time, but now he wondered what kind of life he had led before to deserve this.

- - - - -

Pan and Trunks, who wanted to be helpful, went out to the pay phones and updated the family. Most were over the moon, not understanding how serious the situation was and sending their congratulations to Bra and Goten. Others were worried and passed on any information on heart problems they had. Bulma even went to research heart diseases in Saiyans ("I cured Goku didn't I?") and promised to find a cure.

When they had completed their mission of helpfulness they took seats in the empty waiting room nearest to Bra's room. Pan sat against the room whilst Trunks sprawled out shamelessly across the remaining chairs.

"Trunks…" Pan began.

"Hmm," Trunks replied, looking up at her.

"I don't want to interfere in your life or anything, don't get me wrong, but… I think that Goten could really use a friend right about now."

Trunks grunted. "He should've thought about the consequences before he got Paris pregnant." Trunks had actually gotten along quite well with Paris whilst she and Goten had been dating, but now he loathed her for hurting Bra.

"Are you going to keep telling yourself that he did it on purpose for the rest of your life?" Pan asked him.

"Yes," he mumbled. "He hurt my little sister. It's my job to hate him. I'm under obligation."

This time Pan snorted at him. "Grow up Trunks. It's your job as his best friend to help him out. What do you do when your two obligations collide?"

"Support the group that everyone else supports?" He suggested, and then laughed at his own 'wit'.

Pan laughed with him humourlessly. "Think about it, ok? Like I said, I'm not interfering with what you think is right, but he must be feeling really bad. I know that he was happy that you came, even if it was to see Bra. I wasn't around when you were kids but I've heard some interesting stories." She could tell by his expression that what she was saying was getting through to him. She delivered her winning blow. "We all make mistakes Trunks, you know it, but if Bra's willing to forgive, you're just making an idiot of yourself." Not quite the dramatic line she had been hoping to deliver, but at least she had been herself, a key element in arguments.

They fell silent and enjoyed one of the rare times a person got to think undisturbed. Pan guessed pretty accurately that Trunks was thinking about what she said, and was glad that she had managed to get through to him. Left to his own devices, Trunks was very stubborn, just like Bra. In fact the whole Vegeta-Briefs clan was. So one could say that it took a lot of effort to change a Vegeta-Briefs' mind.

Pan's guess had been a good one. Her talk with him had made him think and decide to try to patch things up with Goten. It would be hard, and they'd never be as close as they had been again, but for Pan and Bra, he'd give it a try. So he had thought of Goten, but he was more preoccupied with other thoughts. Almost without realising, during Bra's pregnancy, he had fallen for Pan in a big way. She had been around almost constantly and he'd begun to see sides of Pan that he had never seen before. They had been friends before, but never very close. Close enough for friendly banter and insults, but not close enough to go out with and confide in. He was known as a notorious player of women, never having a steady relationship, but he could see something working with him and Pan. She wasn't a model, a bimbo or a bitchy rich girl, she was his friend.

- - - - -

_Like my ending to the chapter (I didn't)? – it's TRUNKSXPAN! They make such a cute couple, and I though you fab readers would like it…did you? This story has become a bit of a series of unfortunate events, but in Nattle's imagination, the drama and awful goings on are wonderful and leave even me on edge – I don't even know how the story's going to end? PLEASE REVIEW! I GOT BRILLIANT FOR CHAPTER 8, KEEP IT UP! XX_


	10. Chapter 10

Long time no see, my lovely readers. You have so much patience; I love you so much (If you've given up on me, I hate you!). This, as you know, is Chapter 10 of Number 9. Double figures scare me and I'm not sure how good this chapter will be. I feel a bit cruel for leaving you with darling Hiroshi's terrible predicament (which he is oblivious too, poor lamb) and not updating, but I'll try my best with this. I do have an excuse, it's been exam time here in England again, and this year's been a bitch. So, with out further ado, I present to thee:

10. Diagnosis

Had anyone asked Bra a week or so ago whether she thought she would miss her pregnancy weight, she would have said no, but now that he abdomen was returning to its normal size, she missed it. With the bump, she had not been afraid for her baby's life or felt alone. Now she felt both. Hiro was kept away from her for most of the day as his visiting hours were very short due to his condition. She was comforted by friends and family, but the comfort she needed most was Hiro's– the hand moving instinctively to the bump and the occasional kick (or ki blast, she would remember fondly).

Hiro was three days old, and in those three days Bra's stomach had shrunk considerably, more quickly than a human's would. The reason she had come up with for the rapid reduction was the fighting nature of Saiyans – they couldn't afford to be weak, and a pregnancy bump would hinder any Saiyan woman. In the past three days she had gone home once, to pick up some toiletries and clothes, finally able to ignore the maternity wear and slip on a pair of jeans for the first time in months, although she found that he t-shirts wouldn't fit over her swollen breasts. She would have to buy larger t-shirts.

Now, she was standing outside the door to Hiro's room, knowing that she could not see him and torturing herself with thoughts of him sickening further and further while the doctors took their time examining him. She had sent Goten home to sleep, as he'd spent more sleepless nights than she had on account of her collapse. He had left, promising that he'd have someone join her so that she could get some rest herself. Every time a doctor passed her she would stare hopefully at them, praying that they'd have news for her, but they'd all shake their heads or give her the 'I'm sorry Miss Briefs, we're doing everything we can to speed things along.' At least they weren't calling her Mrs. Son anymore.

"Hey Bra," someone said softly from behind her. She jumped a little, having been deep in thought and not heard anyone approaching.

"Pan. Hi." Bra said shortly. She couldn't trust her voice much these days. She was always on the brink of tears or dead on her feet from exhaustion when anyone tried to talk to her.

"How's Hiroshi?' She asked, nodding towards the closed doors.

"The same." Bra replied, a muscle twitching under her eye as she returned to the brink of tears again. Her voice lowered to a whisper. "I can't believe it. Why is this happening?"

Pan shook her head, deciding to change the subject. It wasn't fair to keep her focused on the thing that was constantly on her mind anyway. "You're mum's been doing some research on heart problems. She says that if he has to have surgery his chances are sky high, especially since he's got Saiyan blood in him. We've got resistance Bra." Bra nodded bravely, blinking away her tears. She knew this already, but every mother will worry about her child. And heat problems were serious.

There was a bump on the door and it swung open. A doctor addressed her. "Miss Briefs," he said grimly, and fear made her blood run cold. She gripped Pan's hand. "We've come to a conclusion. If Icould just see you in my office?"

Bra released Pan's hand and tugged nervously at her t-shirt. "Of course doctor," she replied stiffly, standing up as tall as she could. She would be strong, as Goten would be. She would deal with this like an adult, not Bulma and Vegeta's spoilt princess. She gave Pan a tight smile and followed the doctor through the doors, building up a barrier against the fearful thoughts that threatened to reduce her to a quivering wreck on the floor. Her legs shook unsteadily and she looked over at Hiro, who was still lying listlessly in his cot. She turned away quickly when a lump formed in her throat.

She sat down opposite the doctor at his desk in the office and looked him in the eye, waiting for him to give her the news. "Miss Briefs. Your son has congenital heart disease, a condition that begins as soon as the foetus' heart begins to develop. Now normally 75 of babies born with congenital heart disease are perfectly healthy, and don't need surgery. Unfortunately, due to your son's condition, surgery is necessary. This surgery is very complex, and he will require further surgery later in life."

Bra nodded, to show that she was following. He needed surgery, that surgery was available but complex and he will have further surgery.

"He would undergo surgery as soon as possible, which in his case is estimated to be…" he consulted a sheet of paper. "In about six week's time. If the surgery is successful, he will have to stay at the hospital for a further month under observation, and then he will be allowed home. He would also have to be on medication for the rest of his life, and will probably have to have heart bypass surgery in his teenage years and he may need a pacemaker."

Bra nodded again, and was aware that she should say something. She cleared her throat. "And what are his chances if he had that surgery?"

The doctor glanced at the paper again. "During surgery, the chances are quite high, but we can't go through with that surgery until your son has gained a little more weight. If he can hang on until the surgery Miss Briefs, I am quite sure that your son will be fine."

"Do you think he'll make it to the surgery date?"

"His condition is stable and he hasn't shown other particularly worrying symptoms other than his low energy level. This is only a prediction, but I believe that he'll hold on until then."

"You have my permission to go ahead with the surgery," she told him, although as she said it she broke into a cold sweat and shook violently, slumping forward and unable to hold up her weight. The doctor stood up quickly and led her out of his office and handed her over to Hiro's night nurse, telling her to help Miss Briefs out while he looked after the infant.

"His name's Hiroshi," Bra told him, slurring slightly in her body's ultimate stress mode and the nurse took her to the waiting room.

- - - - -

Bra was sitting at the Capsule Corp kitchen table, surrounded by friends and family, who were all dying to know what would happen to Hiro. It was her turn to stay home and rest while Goten sat outside Hiro's room but with so much on her mind, sleep was impossible. Instead, her mother had called everybody over (very insensitively, as socializing was not something Bra wanted to do) and now they had all gathered around her, waiting.

"Hiro needs surgery, and will need medication for the rest of his life. His surgery is in six weeks time," Bra told the kitchen in a monotone. There was a collective gasp and the most of the women started commenting about the horror to their neighbor. 'Thank goodness my boy was healthy' and 'it makes you realize how lucky we are' - Bra closed here eyes. She wanted to be with Hiro and Goten, not at home with these people.

Chichi patted her on the arm in what she supposed was a reassuring way. "My Goku had a heart problem too. He pulled through and so will Hiroshi, just you see." Bra smiled up at her, glad that one person knew how she felt. "Your mum is a genius Bra and knowing her, she'll be looking for a cure for Hiroshi. He's very lucky to have you as a mum." Bra smile grew a fraction more, though she couldn't help thinking that her mum should be saying this to her. And then she wondered if her mum would be as worried about her if she was as sick as Hiro.

"Bra," Bra jumped guiltily, ashamed for thinking such a thing about her mother. "How's the brat?"

"Stupid question daddy," Bra sighed, but smiling a small smile up at him at the same time. Her father's concern for his grandchild was cute. "The doctor's think he'll be fine. Though God knows what 'fine' is after heart surgery."

Vegeta grunted; his disgust for doctors was obvious to Bra. She supposed that on his planet these things never happened.

The guests eventually left her sitting in the kitchen and moved to the sitting room. Bra was glad of the silence. The comments she had heard earlier had been quite hurtful; they sounded like they thought that Hiro's condition was her fault. Maybe it was. She had ignored the 'no flying' and 'no sparring' rules and had allowed herself to get stressed over so many petty things.

After all, she continued to muse, had she taken a more carefree attitude like Paris had perhaps Hiro would have been born a healthy baby, like Belle. She dug her fists into her eyes, as if she was trying to knock the thoughts out of her. It wasn't anybody's fault. These things happened and she and Goten had just been unlucky. This would all be over in six weeks, whichever way things went.

- - - - -

Goten sat outside Hiro's room. He hadn't heard a single sound from the room since he'd arrived but he'd been assured that all was as well as could be expected from Hiro. Belle cried and babbled constantly, drawing attention to herself. On the few times he had seen Hiro he'd been quiet and moved very little. The most he'd seen him do was give a feeble kick. He'd spoken to the doctors about the surgery, also agreeing to it.

It was nearly visiting time. Bra would join him in a minute so they could see him together as they had done for the past three days. She was actually late, having agreed to meet him on the hour. It was now a quarter past. He wasn't surprised though, she had sick quite soon after Hiro's diagnosis was given to her and had probably fallen asleep at Capsule Corp, where she would be staying until Hiro could come home.

He stared at the door until his vision turned blurry. 'A watched clock never boils' floated uselessly around his head. He rubbed his head tiredly, despite being sent home earlier to rest. He had never had a problem sleeping before, and would never have guessed that he someday would have. Some kind of knock-out medicine sounded very appealing to him, and the only thing stopping him from taking it was missing any details about Hiroshi.

He heard a tock-tock of heels coming towards him and turned automatically towards the sound. Bra looked a lot better than she had a few days ago now that she'd lost most of her weight and could fit into normal clothes (a size or two bigger than he original size but normal none the less), but worry was still visible all over her face. She smiled automatically back at him, an apologetic look in her eyes. "I'm sorry I'm late, I fell asleep." She sounded guilty and Goten knew that she was having the same difficulty with sleeping he was having. "Have you seen any of the doctors?" Goten shook his head.

"No, apart from the one who gave you the news. I had to sign a permission form." Bra closed her eyes and counted to ten slowly to push the tears back. Any mention of the surgery coaxed them out of her and her brain had made a ridiculous bargain with her – if you can do this without crying, Hiro will live. She opened them and looked at the door.

"I can't understand why they won't let us see him more often. It'll do him good; he's a lot more animated when we're there," Bra babbled to distract herself.

"Maybe he's too susceptible to infection from the bacteria and viruses we pick up outside." Goten shrugged. "The doctors know what they're doing."

"We have to do all of those cleaning procedures anyway, what difference would an extra hour do?" Bra asked. Goten shrugged again, focusing on the door once more.

Bra quieted down and turned her own attention to the door, now that the tears had dried up inside her. Goten looked wrecked, with bags under his eyes and his hair messier than usual. She wasn't sure but she suspected that he hadn't changed his clothes since the dinner party. It seemed such a long time ago, yet it had barely been a week since everyone had gathered at her new apartment. How funny life was; who could know what was in store for them?

The door swung open again and Bra's body gave an instinctive jump backwards; her body had not experienced something pleasant the last time that door had opened. The doctor beckoned them into the room and they made their way to the sink, the routine already memorized. As they washed their hands, Bra heard a mewling noise. She froze, turning quickly to Goten, who had also stopped. She snapped off the tap, straining her ears again. The mewling started again. Hiro was making a noise. She turned the tap back on and washed her hands as quickly as she could, and then ran to Hiro, Goten just behind her.

"Oh Hiro…" she breathed, peering at him as he lay in his cot, his face screwed up with the effort of making the quiet protests. "What's the matter Hiroshi? Do you want mummy? And daddy?" She added the last part almost as an afterthought, but she knew how much Goten did care for the both of them. "You're sick of this aren't you honey? Me too Hiro, me too." There were tears in her eyes, but this time, they were of happiness. He was getting better. He was getting stronger! She looked over at Goten, who was beaming, and then at the doctor, who smiled back.

- - - - -

What a pitiful excuse of a chapter…I'll try to get the next one out as quickly as possible. I've over dramatized Hiro's condition terribly, but I can do that! Please review? Please? I know it wasn't that great, but it's to build suspense… please? Thank you!

**Replies to reviews:**

Radiza-Saiyajin-Goddes: I actually have no idea why it's called number 9. It started off as 'On her own, number 9' because I was inspired to write this (please don't hate me) at a fundraising Bingo thing. It's because Bra was originally going to be by herself for nine months (her pregnancy) but my brain changed the plotline completely and I just shortened it to number 9 (the number of months) and even that didn't work out because her pregnancy was shorter! Phew, hope that explains it. Oh yeah, and the Bingo thing is when the number '9' comes up the caller will say 'On its own, number 9'. God, I'm so sad. Bingo…

Shippostail: I'm so glad you like the drama. I was thinking it was a bit much (if it is, don't hesitate to say!).

Goodlife93: Do you know what's weird? I wanted Hiro to be a girl too. I have no idea (about anything) why he turned out as a boy. Throughout the whole pregnancy bit I was thinking – girl. I really have no control over myself.

LunaBela: Thanks for the congratulations. Lol. I'm sorry I didn't update sooner, I really wanted to. As for Hiro's fate…I can be ever so incredibly evil when I want to be. I leave you with that and here's your update.

A humongous thank you to all of the reviewers – you're what keeps this story going (on and on and on – when's it going to end?!).


	11. Chapter 11

_I'm almost definitely going to finish this in a couple more chapters (the last will be an epilogue type thing). I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it! I'll keep this note short and sweet. Here we go again… (By the way – more replies to reviews at the bottom)_

11. Surgery

The following six weeks flashed past and Hiro, despite his frailty, had grown a fair amount in size and weight, and was deemed healthy enough for surgery. His parents grew more worried and panicky by the day, whereas he lay in his cot, perfectly oblivious. He had put on 3 pounds in the past six weeks, bringing him from his birth weight of 6lbs to 9lbs.

Bra and Goten had been overjoyed at every display of strength Hiro gave and every piece of positive news they received, but as the days brought them closer and closer to the surgery date their joy had turned to fear – they had him now, but would they have him later? Very soon, it was the day before Hiro's surgery date.

Goten and Bra were visiting him for the last time before his surgery now. The doctors had left them alone with him for the first time, which would have been nice had the circumstances been different. They had been talked through the procedures countless times (Goten swore he could perform the surgery himself which earned him a wallop over the head with his mum's frying pan – he'd been unfortunate enough to say this when his parents had visited) and were fully aware of everything that could go wrong and everything they would have to do after surgery to keep Hiro healthy. Bra was fussing over Hiro, wrapping his blanket tightly around him, and then loosening it, worried he'd suffocate. Goten just watched her understanding her need to mother Hiro to the best of her ability.

She lifted him out of his plastic crib and jiggled him about, cooing. She'd lost her pregnancy weight now and was back to her thin self and tight fitting clothes. She didn't look much like a mother, but anybody could see how good she was at her new job. Before now, she'd been completely useless with children, hopeless at entertaining and very antisocial around them when they were the centre of attention (it had always been Goten's suspicion that she saw children as competition attention-wise), but now she played with Hiro like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Do you think we'll be able to see him after…afterwards?" She asked, her focus staying on Hiro.

"I don't know," Goten replied. He had asked, but he couldn't remember what the answer had been; so many things had been asked and answered, he couldn't remember what information went with what question.

"They'd better. Mummy wouldn't like it if she couldn't see her baby boy." She cooed at Hiro again. "If Hiro's poorly then he'll have to have his mum look after him." Goten smiled faintly. Bra was so… cute (he decided) when she was with Hiro. He'd never seen her fawn over somebody as much as she did with her son. His mind flicked back to the kiss they'd shared just before her collapse and he felt guilty – his son was going to have serious heart surgery and he was thinking of his relationship.

"Goten?" Bra said softly. He looked up and saw her smiling reassuringly at him. "It's going to be okay. I can feel it." She put her hand on her heart with difficulty and then made her way over to him, moving her arms again so that Hiro could lie more comfortably (Goten could see that he was falling asleep) and sat beside him, leaning her head on his shoulder. "When this is all over-"

"We'll look back on it and laugh?" Goten joked, feebly.

Bra nudged him with her foot and smiled ruefully, rolling her eyes. "Not quite, doofus. But think about it, after everything that's happened don't you think that…we'll be able to forget about everything that's happened before? We could go back to normal." Her cheeks were slightly pink when she finished but she turned her head to kiss Goten's shoulder lightly.

"And here I was, thinking that I would die an old maid!" Goten said, deadpan. He put one arm around her and hugged her and Hiro to him and he saw her smile as she moved her head to his chest and sigh contentedly. He knew that things were far from fixed, but this was a start. Hiro stirred and frowned up at him. "Oh great," he said, grimacing, "Hiro doesn't want to share his mummy with another man." Bra laughed at him and tutted at Hiro.

A cough. "Mr. Son, Miss Briefs? I'm afraid you'll have to leave now, we have to begin the procedures for the surgery tomorrow morning." Goten withdrew his arm and Bra swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat the second she heard the cough. Hiro whimpered as if he knew what was happening. Bra hugged him more tightly and Goten thought for a second that she wasn't going to leave him with the doctors, but she gave him a last kiss and held him up so Goten could do the same, and then she laid him down in the plastic crib. Her eyes had filled with tears that wouldn't clear no matter how many times she blinked and her mouth kept turning down at the corners.

"Bye bye honey," she said stiffly, trying her hardest to keep her voice steady.

"Bye Hiro, we'll come see you soon," Goten said, for Bra's sake more than Hiro's. Hiro couldn't even understand what was happening.

Once they were out of the room Bra let the tears she'd been holding in go and she clung to Goten. Her goodbye had felt so final. How could such an awful thing happen to such a tiny infant? She bunched up the material of Goten's t-shirt in her fists as she sobbed in rage at the injustice. It took all of his power not to cry too and stay strong for Bra. He tried not to listen to her but the cries echoed through the empty waiting room and were magnified tenfold.

* * *

"Hiroshi's surgery is tomorrow morning," Pan said to Trunks. She had been at Capsule Corp. all day with her grandfather and had just found Trunks. He'd just come out of the shower and his lavender hair was dripping water in an incredibly sexy way. Pan couldn't resist starting up a conversation with him, even if she had to use her sick cousin to do it casually.

"I know. Goten called up to remind us. They were going to see him for the last time before his surgery." He sighed, imagining how awful his baby sister must feel. And Goten. He stretched his arms out in front of him. "Still, I'm not too worried. My mum's been researching and the success rates are very high."

"Yeah, but, what if it does go wrong?" Pan asked, finishing sounding almost ashamed to state what could happen. She looked up at him, willing him to say the right thing.

"It won't." He replied firmly. "Come on Pan, it's not like you to think of the worst." She gave him a tight smile back, to which he sighed again and put his arms around her, trying to ignore the rush from his stomach and how now his heart was beating somewhere in his throat rather than where it should be. Pan hugged him back, relishing the moment. After a few seconds they still hadn't released each other, and both realized this at around the same time. They stepped away from each other hastily, laughing awkwardly.

"Yeah…" Pan said, exhaling shakily and trying to fight back the stupid smile that was battling for a place on her face. "I'm just so scared for Bra and Goten. They've both had such a hard time over the past few months, and now that they're friends again, everything's going wrong. I don't even like to imagine what this would do to Bra." She bit her lip worriedly.

* * *

Bra was chewing on a hangnail worriedly. He hadn't even started his surgery! Why did they have to prolong her suffering – what harm could it possibly do to see him early in the morning? She tossed and turned in her bed, watching the clock as she had done all those months ago. How long had it been now, since that day? Too long – she felt like she had aged half a century. Tears sprung to her eyes unbidden, falling steadily and silently. It wasn't fair. She latched onto that phrase, whispering it over and over like a mantra.

A photo that her mother had taken a few weeks ago in the hospital had found its way onto her bedside table, despite her refusing to have a picture of poorly Hiro in her room. She'd wait until he got better, she had told Goten, when he'd presented the framed picture to her. What if he didn't ever get better? What if he died? It hurt so much that Bra had to curl up so her knees were right under her chin and all she wanted was to die and end the hurt. She'd had enough. A sob escaped her lips and she buried her head in her pillow to muffle the noise. She didn't want to disturb Goten; he hadn't slept for a long time.

She reached out shakily to lift the frame to her and look at the photo. Her eyes roamed the picture, taking in every detail of Hiro as if trying to draw him out of the picture and into her arms. His blue hair had grown so much since he had been born, surprising the doctors, but she hadn't been surprised. Goten had to get his own hair cut frequently. She didn't know whether he had been grizzling at the time, but he was glaring just like her father…

She was forced to put the photo away as a fresh wave of tears escaped her. Her eyes were raw from crying, her nose sore from blowing it and she looked a state but for once, she didn't care at all. She would have been happy with stretch marks, cellulite and all other post pregnancy nightmares if she could just have her son home safe with her. "It's not fair," she half-whimpered, half-moaned. There came a hesitant knock at her door.

"Bra?" Came Goten's voice quietly. "Can I come in?" Bra nodded without realizing he couldn't see her until he asked again.

"Yeah," she choked out, trying to push back the tears. The bedroom door opened and Goten walked in and sat on the bed as he had done a thousand and one times before. Bra felt a pang as she remembered how peachy life had been. She'd had everything and yet she had still wanted more. Now all she wanted was one thing. She wondered miserably whether he wished he had just stayed with Paris.

Goten put his arm around her and pulled him towards him, letting her snuffle into his chest. She moved her hand almost hesitantly to rest on his chest and drew comfort from the feeling that was so familiar last year. How could she have been so stupid and spoilt? She started to cry again. Why couldn't she have just listened to him? Maybe this wouldn't have happened if she hadn't been so wrapped up in herself and her perfect little life to see that accidents can and will happen. "Hey, hey," Goten mumbled comfortingly, hugging her more tightly. "You said it was going to be okay. Come on, show some conviction."

"Why is this happening?" She wept, her body shivering so that Goten felt her bones through her skin. She hadn't been eating much recently and it was taking its toll on her body. Goten stroked her hair, wishing there was more he could do for her. "Goten, stay here tonight with me. I don't want to be alone." Goten kissed the top of her head.

"Sure thing Bra," he replied, finding that being with her was comforting him, distracting him from his own feelings. Bra's cries quietened immediately, her whole body relaxed. She sniffed and closed her eyes, leaning into him feeling exhausted. The night didn't seem quite so scary with Goten with her. She looked up at him through wet spiky eyelashes and saw that he was looking at the photo that she had only minutes ago been holding.

"I wish he was home with us," she told him, her voice hoarse from crying. "When he gets out of the hospital we'll fix up this place and he'll have the nicest bedroom. He can have this one as it's the biggest. We'll buy him loads of presents, but we won't let him get spoilt, will we? And we'll invite Belle over to play with him, won't we? He'll have the best life ever." Her voice cracked and she swallowed, unable to continue.

"Yeah," Goten whispered, nuzzling her hair. "And we'll take him to the park. I'll teach him to fly."

"And daddy and Goku will teach him to fight, right?" Bra joked feebly, feeling some of the weight lift.

They continued like this for sometime until Bra drifted off, still in Goten's arms.

* * *

Neither of them stirred until long past noon. They lay together on Bra's bed, a tangle of arms and legs, sleeping like children do with their mouths open and sprawled out. They'd both planned to be at the hospital all day, but they'd slept right through the alarm. Now, Bra stirred, and awoke – confused for a second about why somebody was in her bed. And then she remembered and moved closer to him as she was reminded of Hiro.

His surgery had been set to start at eleven. It had been over an hour already – her poor son was under the knife right now, and she was lying in bed as if everything was okay. What kind of a mother was she? She shook Goten roughly, urgently. His eyes opened straight away and he blinked in confusion for a second. He, too, forgot for just a second that he was a father now. Bra felt minimally reassured that she was not alone.

"Goten, we've got to go to the hospital," Bra said urgently, her face twisting with concern and _more damn tears_. She untangled herself and went to her wardrobe to pull out some clothes. She began stripping out of her comfortable home-clothes without a care as to Goten's presence. He didn't think anything of it either. All either of them could think of was their son.

Goten left to get dressed himself and they met at the front door minutes later.

"Are you ready, love?" Goten asked her softly. Her lip wobbled at the term of endearment and she found his hand, clinging onto it for reassurance. She blinked rapidly – no more tears – and smiled tightly.

"Of course I am. Hiro's a fighter. I have absolutely nothing to worry about."

* * *

_Okay, so I haven't updated for absolutely ages and I lied on my profile. This is better than nothing, right?_

Tomboy 601: Everybody wanted Hiro to be a girl! Maybe he should have had a sex change along with his heart surgery. Erm…the change from Mrs. Son to Miss Briefs was so fast because I guess she put them right. It wasn't a major part of the story, so I decided not to write about her correcting them – it's just cute to get her and Goten confused.

KxH: Thanks for your 'good luck' – I did okay! Here's your update (Sorry I took so long – again!)

NiceNipps: Now, if I had Dende heal Hiro, where would my story be? It's a good idea though; I didn't even think about it… Erm…my explanation will be that since Goku couldn't get healed when he had a heart problem, neither can Hiro. The ending's coming soon too!

Thanks to: LunaBela, goodlife93, Female-Fighter, alexis, VIVI, Shippostail and everyone who has reviewed throughout this fic – reviews mean the world to me, so please continue reviewing! Please?


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